[Music]
when I was a teenager I worked at the
local supermarket as a checkout chick
which is probably where the plaid
against plastic originated for me every
few minutes I was dealing with the new
customer handing out 5 10 sometimes 15
plastic bags and dealing with hundreds
of customers every day this really got
me thinking where are all these plastic
bags coming from and where do they end
up if this is how many plastic bags are
being consumed in one supermarket in one
tiny part of the world how many plastic
bags are being produced consumed and
discarded in all the supermarket’s
globally it was overwhelming to fathom
the scale of it plastic is all around us
in the last 70 years the use of plastic
has become so prolific that were
dependent on it in our everyday lives
about 300 million tons of plastic
produced every year and about half of
this is for single-use convenience items
pink plastic bags plastic water bottles
and disposable coffee cups often used
once just for a few minutes before being
thrown away but where is the way we wipe
our hands clean of it after throwing it
in the rubbish bin but where does it end
up after that we love plastic because of
its versatility and durability but it
seems very properties that make it such
an environmental disaster every single
piece of plastic ever made still exists
in some form somewhere in the world
every coffee cup every chip packet while
a lot of it ends up in landfills
out-of-sight about eight million tons of
this plastic is ending up in the oceans
every year and we all know what happens
when it gets there when I really started
to delve into the issues of plastic
pollution it dawned on me just how big
this problem was and how ingrained it
had become into our everyday lives every
visit to the beach became a clean up and
walking down the aisle of any
supermarket has never been the same for
me I see the plastic everywhere and I
was determined to do something about it
I wanted to stop plastic at its source
so I went on a bit of a mission to
reduce plastic as much as I could within
my own life but I also wanted to inspire
others to do the same so I reflected on
where this journey began for me with
plastic bags a friend and I got together
and we started brainstorming some ideas
to tackle plastic bags in our local
community we found that one of the
biggest barriers to people not you
reusable bags was often the expense a
lack of awareness or simply the fact
that despite their best intentions they
forget to bring their Platt their
reusable bags to the shops so we thought
as a starting point if we could provide
an availability of reusable bags at the
local shopping area people might find it
easier to break their bag habits our
first hurdle here was where we’re going
to get our hands on stacks of reusable
bags that are sustainably made we
couldn’t find an Australian manufacturer
of reusable bags so the next best option
was to make the back to ourselves and to
take sustainability to the next level
we’d use recycled fabric the problem
with this idea was that neither of us
could sew so we put a call out to
friends family and the general public
for donations of recycled fabric and
volunteers to help us to turn that
fabric into bags within weeks we’d
receive truckloads of donated fabric and
we started having regular community
sewing bees where anyone could come
along and get involved in the process
this is how boomerang bags was born with
the help of hundreds of volunteers our
little community of Burleigh Heads had
made thousands of reusable bags and
spread them throughout the local
shopping area as a means to raise
awareness and to provide an alternative
to plastic bags what we learned
throughout this process is a lot about
the power of community to create change
we noticed something really wonderful
happening at every community gathering
amongst the humming of sewing machines
people were socializing connecting and
interacting they were sharing their life
stories but not only that they were
talking to each other about plastic
about its effects on the environment
about where they just bought their new
reusable coffee cup and about how they
just convinced their neighbors to go
plastic bag free boomerang bags had
suddenly become a platform where people
could discuss and brainstorm solutions
to plastic pollution to connect and to
share and learn from each other
and to find a sense of purpose in
contributing to their local community so
we started getting contacted by people
around Australia that also wanted to
make bags we couldn’t be everywhere at
once so we put our heads together and we
developed a toolkit that would empower
community leaders to drive the
initiative locally within about a year
there were 10 boomerang
communities up and running around
Australia another two years on and there
are 300 boomerang bag communities now
underway around the world
from New Zealand to Norway community
volunteers have collectively made over
80,000 reusable bags that are in
circulation around the globe this
equates to about 40 million plastic bags
being replaced and about 25,000 kilos of
waste I voted from landfill every
boomerang bag has a story from where its
materials were sourced to who it was
made by and how far it’s traveled they
used and reused boomerang – friends
families as a means to start a
conversation to connect people to issues
of waste connect them to each other
and to inspire them to make changes
small changes in their everyday lives
that will help them to live a little
more sustainably essentially the bags
are acting as a catalyst for change so
what can you do to reduce your plastic
footprint firstly start to observe how
much plastic you’re currently consuming
in your everyday life
sounds a bit weird but the best place to
start is by having a look in your
garbage bin and you’ll soon realize
where a lot of your waste is coming from
get creative about how you and your
family can reduce the use of plastic in
your everyday life one of the biggest
ways that plastic finds its way into our
lives is through the single-use
convenience items water bottles plastic
bags plastic straws takeout containers
invest in some reusable alternatives to
these items and get into the habit of
taking them everywhere with you just
like turning the tap off when you brush
your teeth it’s all about creating good
habits food and product packaging is
another big one and a lot of this can be
easily avoided by shopping a little more
consciously opt for glass and paper
packaging / plastic and look for your
local farmers markets and bulk food
stores and experiment with making things
from scratch to avoid the packaging
altogether lastly like a boomerang bag
be a catalyst for change
thanks to TEDx all of you guys are now a
proud owner of your very own boomerang
bag if you take nothing else away from
this talk but to use and reuse this bag
instead of plastic you’ve already saved
five hundred and fifty plastic bags from
being used in one year collectively
that’s 100,000 plastic bags saved in
this room alone take the challenge one
step further
boomerang your bag to a friend or the
bag less stranger at the supermarket and
when you do start a conversation
encourage them to use it
and tell them why it’s so important
share with them what you’ve learned
about going plastic bag free and show
them how they can to boomerang bags
originated from a conversation between
two people over coffee so you never know
where these conversations might lead the
problem with plastic is really big and
overwhelming but it’s important not to
underestimate your power as an
individual to create change ultimately
the solution starts with us thank you
[Applause]
when I was a teenager I worked at the
local supermarket as a checkout chick
which is probably where the plaid
against plastic originated for me every
few minutes I was dealing with the new
customer handing out 5 10 sometimes 15
plastic bags and dealing with hundreds
of customers every day this really got
me thinking where are all these plastic
bags coming from and where do they end
up if this is how many plastic bags are
being consumed in one supermarket in one
tiny part of the world how many plastic
bags are being produced consumed and
discarded in all the supermarket’s
globally it was overwhelming to fathom
the scale of it plastic is all around us
in the last 70 years the use of plastic
has become so prolific that were
dependent on it in our everyday lives
about 300 million tons of plastic
produced every year and about half of
this is for single-use convenience items
pink plastic bags plastic water bottles
and disposable coffee cups often used
once just for a few minutes before being
thrown away but where is the way we wipe
our hands clean of it after throwing it
in the rubbish bin but where does it end
up after that we love plastic because of
its versatility and durability but it
seems very properties that make it such
an environmental disaster every single
piece of plastic ever made still exists
in some form somewhere in the world
every coffee cup every chip packet while
a lot of it ends up in landfills
out-of-sight about eight million tons of
this plastic is ending up in the oceans
every year and we all know what happens
when it gets there when I really started
to delve into the issues of plastic
pollution it dawned on me just how big
this problem was and how ingrained it
had become into our everyday lives every
visit to the beach became a clean up and
walking down the aisle of any
supermarket has never been the same for
me I see the plastic everywhere and I
was determined to do something about it
I wanted to stop plastic at its source
so I went on a bit of a mission to
reduce plastic as much as I could within
my own life but I also wanted to inspire
others to do the same so I reflected on
where this journey began for me with
plastic bags a friend and I got together
and we started brainstorming some ideas
to tackle plastic bags in our local
community we found that one of the
biggest barriers to people not you
reusable bags was often the expense a
lack of awareness or simply the fact
that despite their best intentions they
forget to bring their Platt their
reusable bags to the shops so we thought
as a starting point if we could provide
an availability of reusable bags at the
local shopping area people might find it
easier to break their bag habits our
first hurdle here was where we’re going
to get our hands on stacks of reusable
bags that are sustainably made we
couldn’t find an Australian manufacturer
of reusable bags so the next best option
was to make the back to ourselves and to
take sustainability to the next level
we’d use recycled fabric the problem
with this idea was that neither of us
could sew so we put a call out to
friends family and the general public
for donations of recycled fabric and
volunteers to help us to turn that
fabric into bags within weeks we’d
receive truckloads of donated fabric and
we started having regular community
sewing bees where anyone could come
along and get involved in the process
this is how boomerang bags was born with
the help of hundreds of volunteers our
little community of Burleigh Heads had
made thousands of reusable bags and
spread them throughout the local
shopping area as a means to raise
awareness and to provide an alternative
to plastic bags what we learned
throughout this process is a lot about
the power of community to create change
we noticed something really wonderful
happening at every community gathering
amongst the humming of sewing machines
people were socializing connecting and
interacting they were sharing their life
stories but not only that they were
talking to each other about plastic
about its effects on the environment
about where they just bought their new
reusable coffee cup and about how they
just convinced their neighbors to go
plastic bag free boomerang bags had
suddenly become a platform where people
could discuss and brainstorm solutions
to plastic pollution to connect and to
share and learn from each other
and to find a sense of purpose in
contributing to their local community so
we started getting contacted by people
around Australia that also wanted to
make bags we couldn’t be everywhere at
once so we put our heads together and we
developed a toolkit that would empower
community leaders to drive the
initiative locally within about a year
there were 10 boomerang
communities up and running around
Australia another two years on and there
are 300 boomerang bag communities now
underway around the world
from New Zealand to Norway community
volunteers have collectively made over
80,000 reusable bags that are in
circulation around the globe this
equates to about 40 million plastic bags
being replaced and about 25,000 kilos of
waste I voted from landfill every
boomerang bag has a story from where its
materials were sourced to who it was
made by and how far it’s traveled they
used and reused boomerang – friends
families as a means to start a
conversation to connect people to issues
of waste connect them to each other
and to inspire them to make changes
small changes in their everyday lives
that will help them to live a little
more sustainably essentially the bags
are acting as a catalyst for change so
what can you do to reduce your plastic
footprint firstly start to observe how
much plastic you’re currently consuming
in your everyday life
sounds a bit weird but the best place to
start is by having a look in your
garbage bin and you’ll soon realize
where a lot of your waste is coming from
get creative about how you and your
family can reduce the use of plastic in
your everyday life one of the biggest
ways that plastic finds its way into our
lives is through the single-use
convenience items water bottles plastic
bags plastic straws takeout containers
invest in some reusable alternatives to
these items and get into the habit of
taking them everywhere with you just
like turning the tap off when you brush
your teeth it’s all about creating good
habits food and product packaging is
another big one and a lot of this can be
easily avoided by shopping a little more
consciously opt for glass and paper
packaging / plastic and look for your
local farmers markets and bulk food
stores and experiment with making things
from scratch to avoid the packaging
altogether lastly like a boomerang bag
be a catalyst for change
thanks to TEDx all of you guys are now a
proud owner of your very own boomerang
bag if you take nothing else away from
this talk but to use and reuse this bag
instead of plastic you’ve already saved
five hundred and fifty plastic bags from
being used in one year collectively
that’s 100,000 plastic bags saved in
this room alone take the challenge one
step further
boomerang your bag to a friend or the
bag less stranger at the supermarket and
when you do start a conversation
encourage them to use it
and tell them why it’s so important
share with them what you’ve learned
about going plastic bag free and show
them how they can to boomerang bags
originated from a conversation between
two people over coffee so you never know
where these conversations might lead the
problem with plastic is really big and
overwhelming but it’s important not to
underestimate your power as an
individual to create change ultimately
the solution starts with us thank you
[Applause]
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