Show #93: Plastic pollution and the Plastic Free July story with founder Rebecca Prince Ruiz

LISTEN TO THIS WEEK’S SHOW ON iTUNES, STITCHER OR SPOTIFY OR LISTEN RIGHT HERE:

NEW PATREON SUPPORT PAGE – Yay! The Low Tox Club is here and YOU decide how much you want to spend to be a part of it.

You can become a Low Tox Life club member on Patreon for as little as $4USD a month. We have some awesome extras planned for our Patreon supporters, but first up, we’re including a private Low Tox Life chat group – finally! You’ll be able to unlock these Patreon extras when you sign up HERE to become a Low Tox Life podcast “patron”. I’m really excited to see where this takes us all. Come and join us there for group challenges to accompany the weekly shows, special brand offers to make your low tox switches easier and meaningful chats about the low tox life.

And onto this week’s show!

There is an undeniable shift from so many people away from single use plastics and plastic items that have plastic free alternatives (switching from a bath gel pump to a bar soap for example) but there is still a massive amount of work to do in spreading the word and shifting people’s perceptions around them being ‘inconvenienced’. In today’s chat, I discuss plastic pollution – the situation AND the hope we both share, for how powerfully we can change the statistic that there is going to be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050 if we continue this way. Rebecca shares many insights into consumer behaviour that they’ve studied to design the most effective change narrative as well as sharing her very personal journey in reducing waste in her home, to then the little office challenge she issued which then turned out to be the initiative that Plastic Free July has become – something that millions connect to from around the world today! Enjoy the show, be  uplifted not disheartened and see you for Plastic Free July! I’ll be posting every day on instagram @lowtoxlife if you fancy joining me there. 

What questions do I ask Rebecca this week?

1. What has been your plastic awakening journey – some of the biggest moments / shifts for you towards action?
2. How did Plastic free July come about and where?
3. What were your biggest challenges the first time you did a plastic free month with your office colleagues on a whim?
4. Why the departure from its original home?
5. How many people partook last year and what are your goals this year?
6. A philosophical question/discussion: How do you believe educated people aware of the plastics situation, STILL use single use plastics?
7. What are some of the most startling statistics in the research to help even the greatest non-believer in change, that it’s time everyone took responsibility?
8. If we’re already low plastic, what do we benefit from in doing Plastic Free July?
9. What are a couple of plastic free swaps over the years that you made, that made you feel super clever at mastering. (for me it was ditching glad wrap and switching to bar soap. Composting so that I didn’t need a bin liner as everything that went in there was dry and negligible in qty)

Other helpful links?

Find out more and register for Plastic Free July here: www.plasticfreejuly.org

Find Plastic Free July on Facebook

Have you heard about the Toxic Home Transformation Summit: join for free HERE

For just this week, my upcoming book is available for pre order and we’ve put together some fab bonus pre order goodies AND a brilliant discount across all retailers prior to launch date! Then? It is RELEASED and shipping Australia / NZ from July 1! Europe to follow August 8th and the USA via Amazon early September – all details in the pre order link.

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