Rebecca Prince-Ruiz - Plastic Free: The Inspiring Story of a Global Environmental Movement and Why It Matters

REBECCA PRINCE-RUIZ is the founder of Plastic Free July one of the worlds leading environmental movements empowering people to reduce single-use plastic. Rebecca is Executive Director of the not-for-profit Plastic Free Foundation that has the vision of a world without plastic waste. She has a Bachelor of Science and 25 years of experience in environmental and waste management, community engagement and sustainability behaviour change. Rebecca lives in Fremantle, Western Australia.

JOANNA ATHERFOLD FINNS debut book, Watermark, was published in 2018. Joanna has a PhD in English and has taught creative writing at the University of Newcastle as well as working as a freelance journalist. She lives in Port Stephens, New South Wales.

Plastic Free shows us how to organise around our innate desire for a beautiful, clean environment, and eventually change, in a fundamental way, the system that unnecessarily creates the ugly mess.

Captain Charles Moore, veteran seafarer and author of Plastic Ocean

Few people have spent as much time as Rebecca Prince-Ruiz trying to work out how to minimise the plastic in our lives.

Craig Reucassel, comedian and presenter of War on Waste

Plastic Free shows how one person can ripple out and cause good around the globe. Never has there been a more important time to share hope and action, and combine them for our Mother Earth.

Melissa Joan Hart, actor

A NewSouth book

Published by

NewSouth Publishing

University of New South Wales Press Ltd

University of New South Wales

Sydney NSW 2052

AUSTRALIA

newsouthpublishing.com

Rebecca Prince-Ruiz and Joanna Atherfold Finn 2020

First published 2020

10987654321

This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be addressed to the publisher.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia

ISBN9781742236551 (paperback)

9781742244884 (ebook)

9781742249407 (ePDF)

Internal design Josephine Pajor-Markus

Cover design Design by Commitee

Cover image Ocean pollution by household garbage, photograph by Andrii Zastrozhnov. iStock

Printer Griffin Press

All reasonable efforts were taken to obtain permission to use copyright material reproduced in this book, but in some cases copyright could not be traced. The authors welcome information in this regard.

NewSouth Publishing sought the most sustainable options available in the printing of this book. It was printed on paper using fibre supplied from plantation or sustainably managed forests, and the cover includes a varnish coating instead of plastic lamination. Where possible, we reduced the use of plastic wrapping in the production and delivery.

To my mothers, Jean and Leigh

Rebecca

To my parents, David and Vicki

Joanna

We are at a unique stage in our history. Never before have we had such an awareness of what we are doing to the planet, and never before have we had the power to do something about that. Surely we have a responsibility to care for our blue planet. The future of humanity and indeed, all life on Earth, now depends on us.

David Attenborough, Blue Planet II

It was billions of micro actions that created the problem and billions of micro actions that can help save it. It all starts with us.

Emily Penn, ocean advocate, skipper and co-founder of eXXpedition

This is a book about how ordinary people can make extraordinary changes. It tells the story of Plastic Free July, a social phenomenon involving over 250 million people in 177 countries. Most importantly, it shows how a determined community can become a formidable force.

It started when I asked a simple question: Im going plastic free next month. Who wants to join me? The small group of people who said yes grew into one of the worlds most successful environmental movements.

Some joined because they wanted to avoid their short-lived plastic bags becoming hazardous baggage for the world or because they were worried about where their disposable coffee cup would end up. Others signed up because they had seen wildlife entangled in plastic and want to leave a different legacy for their children. People everywhere are starting to realise the devastating impacts of our throwaway society and the need to contribute to meaningful change.

Plastic Free is the story of all those who have taken up the challenge and changed their own lives and communities, learning from the stumbling blocks and triumphs of others across the globe. You will meet the resilient friends who went from having no retail experience to setting up a bulk food store. You will find out how a photo of a basket of cups inspired cafs all over the world. You will read how one airline removed 30 million single-use plastic items from its operations in one year alone.

Most importantly, this is not just a story about plastic. It is a story of how to make change and invite its momentum into our lives. Whether you are a student, a parent, an educator, a member of a community group, a change-maker, a business operator, a corporate leader or in government, we hope this story will inspire you to join us and others on the journey toward meaningful change. The question for us isnt What difference can one person make? but How can we continue to create change together?

With so many challenges facing our world, there is too much to lose not to try.

A day in June 2011 changed everything.

At an unremarkable, gunmetal-grey building on the outskirts of town, the pace was frenetic. A convoy of trucks emptied their loads and kept going back for more. Inside, the mountain grew. Skilled drivers of front-end loaders scooped up massive bucketloads from the floor and fed them onto a conveyor belt to be transported through machinery for processing. The operation was fast and furious a complex, never-ending, energy-intensive system. Of course, the machines could only do so much. I climbed an industrial staircase and hovered over another scene where the percussive screech was relentless; masked employees in beanies and hi-vis shirts fossicked through the remains of other peoples lives. The work was not only tedious but grimy too. A musty haze lingered in the air and settled on my skin. It was more than that, though. I could feel myself sinking under the weight of what I was witnessing.

I had never known this place existed, had never even thought about it, but I was surely a part of it. Here was the end-of-life point of human production and consumerism, and it was driving so much intensity and effort. This was no dystopian horror story, though there were certainly parallels.