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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast

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Speaker 1: from News Talks.

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Speaker 2: A'd be we're in the middle of July. We usually

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Speaker 2: think of July as being dry July, but it also

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Speaker 2: it's also plastic free July. And it's almost fifteen years

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Speaker 2: since Plastic Free July was first launched. Rebecca Prince Ruiz

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Speaker 2: is the founder and executive director of Plastic Free July,

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Speaker 2: and she's with us we're almost halfway through the month

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Speaker 2: to talk a little bit about how plastic Free July

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Speaker 2: is going this year. Good a Rebecca, and welcome to

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Speaker 2: the show.

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Speaker 3: Good morning, Cura.

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Speaker 2: Nice to be speaking with you. So can you just

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Speaker 2: explain exactly what pstic plastic Free July actually is.

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Speaker 3: Well, Plastic Free July is a moment to look at

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Speaker 3: the plastics in our lives. It's not actually about being

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Speaker 3: plastic free. That's impossible. I wouldn't be talking to you

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Speaker 3: on the phone now if I was.

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Speaker 2: Plus one plastic free.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's just about choosing one or two

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Speaker 3: of the single use plastics items we use just for

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Speaker 3: a few seconds or a minute, a few minutes and

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Speaker 3: throw them away and finding alternatives. So, like you know,

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Speaker 3: choosing you remembering your usable coffee cup, or refilling your

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Speaker 3: water bottle, or switching from liquid soaps to a bar soap.

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Speaker 3: And it's about, like I said, it's about not about

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Speaker 3: being perfect. It's about lots of people making small changes

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Speaker 3: which together adds up to a big difference.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a really good point. I hadn't thought about

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Speaker 2: the soap one before. That's an obvious one. I use

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Speaker 2: bar soap because I just think it, I feel like

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Speaker 2: it works better. But that's quite a simple one. So

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Speaker 2: what are some of the other like simple ways that

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Speaker 2: people could could like reduce plastic use in their lives.

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Speaker 3: Oh, look, there's so many ways that millions of people

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Speaker 3: around the world are reducing their plastic waste at the moment.

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Speaker 3: In you know, in Altro and New Zealand, plastic bags

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Speaker 3: have been banned. In other countries, people might be focusing

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Speaker 3: on the bags, skipping straws things that we've banned, or

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Speaker 3: taking reusable produce bags, cutting down on plastic food wrap

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Speaker 3: in the kitchen, storing food in containers or putting a

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Speaker 3: plate on top of a bowl, or using wax wraps

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Speaker 3: in the kitchen. A lot of people are trying out

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Speaker 3: and there's been some great workshops in New Zealand over

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Speaker 3: this month of how to make your own body scrub

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Speaker 3: or deodorant or cleaning instead of having fifteen different plastic

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Speaker 3: bottles of cleaning products in our kitchens and our laundries,

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Speaker 3: just using things like bi carb and vinegar or lemons

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Speaker 3: that we can use the same materials that you can

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Speaker 3: often get refilled and use those instead. It's an opportunity,

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Speaker 3: I think, first of all, to make new habits, like

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Speaker 3: we all you know, we all have a reusable coffee cup.

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Speaker 3: Many of us have five or six of those, but

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Speaker 3: they're not reusable if you've left them at home in

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Speaker 3: the cupboard. And even those paper cups are normally lined

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Speaker 3: with plastic or have plastic lids, and they end up

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Speaker 3: in our landfill, hopefully not as litter. But these are

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Speaker 3: all just simple changes that we can make and we

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Speaker 3: know it makes a difference. So last year, one hundred

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Speaker 3: and seventy four million people took part in Plastic Free

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Speaker 3: July and together avoided three hundred and ninety million kilos

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Speaker 3: of plastic wats. So, but you know, the solutions we

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Speaker 3: always say, like do what you can with what you have,

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Speaker 3: where you are because you know, some people are very

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Speaker 3: fortunate they can buy a lot of their household products

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Speaker 3: and foods in bulk, whereas others don't have either those

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Speaker 3: stores available or and in a position to do it.

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Speaker 3: So we say like, look in your pantry, look in

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Speaker 3: your fridge, look in your binds, see what you can,

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Speaker 3: see what you're using, and then have a think about

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Speaker 3: what you can avoid. And we share lots of ideas

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Speaker 3: on our website and socials of what people are doing

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Speaker 3: around the world.

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Speaker 2: So people can go to website by going to Plastic

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Speaker 2: Free July dot, Ogi dot org, Robigga. Do you feel

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Speaker 2: like we're sort of like the plastic free movement is

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Speaker 2: like gaining a bit of momentum at the moment that

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Speaker 2: people you know that people are kind of more into

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Speaker 2: trying to reduce the amount of plastic in their lives.

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Speaker 3: Oh one hundred percent. And it's not just plastic, like

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Speaker 3: we also know, you know, when we're starting to people

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Speaker 3: starting to try and reduce their plastic, which is often

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Speaker 3: the first step, it's also about reducing overall waste. So

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Speaker 3: you know, instead of you need one avocado, you go

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Speaker 3: to the store, it's cheaper to buy four, which is

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Speaker 3: very frustrating when it's chipid by four on a plastic

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Speaker 3: tray with plastic rap. But if you only needed one,

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Speaker 3: chances are that the other four might you know, go

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Speaker 3: to waste. So there's that kind of parallel impact. But

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Speaker 3: we also like encourage people and share ideas, and the

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Speaker 3: community is doing things like, you know, menu planning from

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Speaker 3: their fridge, using up leftovers, making a stock from the

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Speaker 3: veggies you didn't manage to finish up last week, and

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Speaker 3: love food, hate waste. It's got some great ideas about

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Speaker 3: you know, using leftovers, and it's you know, I think

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Speaker 3: plastic is almost the entry point. And when I started

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Speaker 3: this fifteen years ago, single use wasn't even a term,

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Speaker 3: and now there's so much momentum and so many stories.

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Speaker 3: Of course we've got to go. There's a lot more

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Speaker 3: that we can do, but you know, we have to

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Speaker 3: tackle this problem. Like we're coming to the point where

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Speaker 3: even even our clothes, which much of them are made

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Speaker 3: of plastics, with fast fashion, they're becoming single use and

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Speaker 3: so many of our household items. So it's about it's

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Speaker 3: about finding alternatives, it's about being more mindful about reducing

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Speaker 3: our waste, reducing our footprint, because the less we the

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Speaker 3: more that we can reduce and reuse and repair, the

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Speaker 3: more of an impact we're going to have, and the

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Speaker 3: less resources that we use, and the more that we

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Speaker 3: are mindful, the less overall resources are being extracted and

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Speaker 3: used and consumed right across the life cycle of these products.

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Speaker 2: Well sounds great. Thank you so much, Rebecca. We really

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Speaker 2: appreciate your time this morning. Rebecca print Thruease is the

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Speaker 2: founder and executive director of Plastic Free July. You can

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Speaker 2: see more information of Plastic Free July dot org

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Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live

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