I’m Clara and I have a passion for
plastic and tonight I have quite a
challenge because it’s my plan to
convince all of you sitting in this
audience to share that plastic for
fashion with me and I know what you’re
thinking
plastic who cares right well if there’s
one thing that I learned about human
beings in my humble 23 years of age it’s
that we like life simple we don’t
necessarily like changing our habits we
actually hate that and this is precisely
why I decided to do the opposite and I
went out and changed my life completely
for a month I decided to live without
plastic that’s impossible was probably
probably the comment that I got the most
from people Clara you’re crazy this is
something that you cannot do plastics
everywhere well in my thirty days of
living without it I learned that it’s
far from being impossible it’s weird
though so there was a moment that I was
trying hard to really avoid all the
plastics in my bathroom right because
our shampoo doesn’t even doesn’t only
come bottled and plastic there’s also
loads of micro plastics floating around
and so on so I looked out for
alternatives in my search I found that
you can use a mix of rye flour and water
to make your hair clean and after that
rinse with vinegar so I’m standing there
in my shower with this glass of smelly
apple cider vinegar I’m about to pour
that over my head
it’s a moment I’m telling you I do not
want to repeat many times in my life
what I also found is that it can be
scary if you challenge yourself to live
without plastic because you become aware
of how only present that material is to
our lives after two weeks of Mike
Behrman I walked into a normal
supermarket right not not really a scary
experience usually but I was feeling
like I’m walking on his landfill
everything is wrapped in plastic
I could buy probably five to ten percent
of the products they were offering and
that’s something we accept as normal
right well I also find after in living
without plastic that it’s been
surprising it’s been surprising to see
how many alternatives already exists for
this plastic mess that we usually have I
was still able to eat my cereals in the
morning that I bought in a bulk store
and I even went to a music festival and
partied for three days without having to
use a single thing of plastic and the
last thing I learned is that it’s
exciting and the excitement and the fun
came mainly because I shared what I did
sharing was something in the beginning
that I decided to do from day one on but
it was scary to me because I thought
people would judge me criticize me
misunderstand what I was doing but
instead I learned that sharing gave me
the power to inspire and to change the
people around me suddenly I was getting
messages from people around the world
telling me Clara thank you for what
you’re doing I finally convinced my
flatmates to recycle at home and my
professor that saw a post of mine on
Instagram came to me and said hey what
do you mind sharing your recipe for
making your own toothpaste so I can
teach my children those are stories of
people that started waking up they woke
up to see what I call 1 billion plastic
elephants because 1 billion elephants is
the volume of all the plastic that we
have produced up to today that’s eight
point three billion tonnes of plastic
eight point three billion and we only
started producing plastic in the 1950s
and by now it spread so far that there’s
already five hundred times more plastic
particles in our oceans than their stars
in the sky
imagine that number five hundred times
more than the whole universe that’s 51
trillion particles of plastic that are
floating around right now and yes many
of us say okay but I’m good I recycle
right well the reality is that 91% of
all the plastics is not recycled and it
ends up everywhere when researchers went
out to a virgin island and digged a hole
of one meters time one meters times 10
centimeters they found 4,000 pieces of
plastic in that cent and this is an
island that has been untouched from
humans forever none no one has ever been
there before well unfortunately plastic
has not only spread to the most remote
corners of our natural environment it
also effects all of us it’s in the air
we breathe the food we consume and in
the water we drink and as of now already
83% of tap water all around the world
and 93% of bottled water contains micro
plastics and I know many of you here
might think that drinking bottled water
is safe well actually it contains double
the amount of micro plastics and tap
water so rethink before you buy the next
bottle of plastic fraktur
write to me plastic comes with a big
paradox because it’s a material that’s
amazing it’s made to last forever it
will take centuries or thousands of
years to ever degrade and some of them
some scientists say that it will only
break down to smaller and smaller pieces
and never truly disappear the best thing
here is that 50% of the plastic that we
use is single use it’s something that we
use for such small instance
minutes or seconds and then it will be
there forever now I hope that by now all
of you here have woken up right and
another thing that I learned about human
beings is that in the moment that we
wake up and we learn about a problem
there’s three different ways that we can
react to that number one is we do the
ostrich we take our hand and dig it in
the sand ignore the problem and continue
living as always the second way is we
start pointing fingers they say it’s the
fault of governments of language
legislation of big corporations they
have to change and please keep doing
this because it’s important to call
those big actors on the global level
upon their responsibility but there’s
also a third way that you can choose and
that’s looking in the mirror and as you
might guess I chose to go down past
three and I didn’t stop with my plastic
experiment I created an organization
called impact Revolution and with this
project I’ve been able to reach
thousands of people through a podcast
where I talked to CEOs to entrepreneurs
activists and artists about ideas of
sustainability and impact that I
consider worth spreading I went to
conferences to talk to those important
people about initiatives they were doing
I’ve started and clean up hikes in the
mountains of Madrid and plugging runs
that is you go jogging while picking up
litter and we’ve done circular economy
startup days where we helped
entrepreneurs launch their own projects
that rethink the way that we use our
waste and also in September I will
launch the traveling trashed or a bike
trip that goes from Paris over Belgium
Netherlands up to Berlin was a bike
dragging a mountain of plastic trash
behind me and in every major city that I
will pass there’s gonna be an event
with politicians with business leaders
and all different stakeholders where we
find solutions for a plastic problem but
the main message to you is that you do
not need to be as crazy and passionate
about plastic as I am there are simple
steps that you can take much not as
complex as myself very very simple and
easy that you can implement in your
daily life the next time you walk into a
coffee shop I have a challenge for you
it’s something daring order your coffee
to stay and take those two minutes out
of your day to drink that cup while
talking to the barista and skip the
disposable one that you usually take in
your bathroom swap your disposable soap
and your shampoo for solid ones no need
for vinegar here just use one the
different use of plastic packaging when
you go shopping finally bring your own
bag and refuse to put those two tomatoes
in a separate plastic bag because you
might as well just take the sticker put
it on the fruit and walk with that to
the cashier and if you buy a shirt in a
shop then just put that shirt in your
own first because you really don’t need
an extra bag for it do you when you go
out for a drink order it without a straw
and I think that tonight I’ve given all
of you enough reasons to never buy a
plastic water bottle again and lastly I
want to advise you to be spontaneous
creative and to have fun while you do
this share your experience with the
people around you because that way you
can multiply the impact that you’re
little change has in the totality of the
world in those few minutes of my talk
another million of plastic elephants was
born but we’re not hopeless
right we can change something your
decisions can become revolutions of
impact because all of us are
changemakers by the fact that we live
that we wake up every morning and take
some choices we shape the world we live
in and I want all of you to become proud
changemakers proud of what you leave
behind in this planet thank you [Applause]
plastic and tonight I have quite a
challenge because it’s my plan to
convince all of you sitting in this
audience to share that plastic for
fashion with me and I know what you’re
thinking
plastic who cares right well if there’s
one thing that I learned about human
beings in my humble 23 years of age it’s
that we like life simple we don’t
necessarily like changing our habits we
actually hate that and this is precisely
why I decided to do the opposite and I
went out and changed my life completely
for a month I decided to live without
plastic that’s impossible was probably
probably the comment that I got the most
from people Clara you’re crazy this is
something that you cannot do plastics
everywhere well in my thirty days of
living without it I learned that it’s
far from being impossible it’s weird
though so there was a moment that I was
trying hard to really avoid all the
plastics in my bathroom right because
our shampoo doesn’t even doesn’t only
come bottled and plastic there’s also
loads of micro plastics floating around
and so on so I looked out for
alternatives in my search I found that
you can use a mix of rye flour and water
to make your hair clean and after that
rinse with vinegar so I’m standing there
in my shower with this glass of smelly
apple cider vinegar I’m about to pour
that over my head
it’s a moment I’m telling you I do not
want to repeat many times in my life
what I also found is that it can be
scary if you challenge yourself to live
without plastic because you become aware
of how only present that material is to
our lives after two weeks of Mike
Behrman I walked into a normal
supermarket right not not really a scary
experience usually but I was feeling
like I’m walking on his landfill
everything is wrapped in plastic
I could buy probably five to ten percent
of the products they were offering and
that’s something we accept as normal
right well I also find after in living
without plastic that it’s been
surprising it’s been surprising to see
how many alternatives already exists for
this plastic mess that we usually have I
was still able to eat my cereals in the
morning that I bought in a bulk store
and I even went to a music festival and
partied for three days without having to
use a single thing of plastic and the
last thing I learned is that it’s
exciting and the excitement and the fun
came mainly because I shared what I did
sharing was something in the beginning
that I decided to do from day one on but
it was scary to me because I thought
people would judge me criticize me
misunderstand what I was doing but
instead I learned that sharing gave me
the power to inspire and to change the
people around me suddenly I was getting
messages from people around the world
telling me Clara thank you for what
you’re doing I finally convinced my
flatmates to recycle at home and my
professor that saw a post of mine on
Instagram came to me and said hey what
do you mind sharing your recipe for
making your own toothpaste so I can
teach my children those are stories of
people that started waking up they woke
up to see what I call 1 billion plastic
elephants because 1 billion elephants is
the volume of all the plastic that we
have produced up to today that’s eight
point three billion tonnes of plastic
eight point three billion and we only
started producing plastic in the 1950s
and by now it spread so far that there’s
already five hundred times more plastic
particles in our oceans than their stars
in the sky
imagine that number five hundred times
more than the whole universe that’s 51
trillion particles of plastic that are
floating around right now and yes many
of us say okay but I’m good I recycle
right well the reality is that 91% of
all the plastics is not recycled and it
ends up everywhere when researchers went
out to a virgin island and digged a hole
of one meters time one meters times 10
centimeters they found 4,000 pieces of
plastic in that cent and this is an
island that has been untouched from
humans forever none no one has ever been
there before well unfortunately plastic
has not only spread to the most remote
corners of our natural environment it
also effects all of us it’s in the air
we breathe the food we consume and in
the water we drink and as of now already
83% of tap water all around the world
and 93% of bottled water contains micro
plastics and I know many of you here
might think that drinking bottled water
is safe well actually it contains double
the amount of micro plastics and tap
water so rethink before you buy the next
bottle of plastic fraktur
write to me plastic comes with a big
paradox because it’s a material that’s
amazing it’s made to last forever it
will take centuries or thousands of
years to ever degrade and some of them
some scientists say that it will only
break down to smaller and smaller pieces
and never truly disappear the best thing
here is that 50% of the plastic that we
use is single use it’s something that we
use for such small instance
minutes or seconds and then it will be
there forever now I hope that by now all
of you here have woken up right and
another thing that I learned about human
beings is that in the moment that we
wake up and we learn about a problem
there’s three different ways that we can
react to that number one is we do the
ostrich we take our hand and dig it in
the sand ignore the problem and continue
living as always the second way is we
start pointing fingers they say it’s the
fault of governments of language
legislation of big corporations they
have to change and please keep doing
this because it’s important to call
those big actors on the global level
upon their responsibility but there’s
also a third way that you can choose and
that’s looking in the mirror and as you
might guess I chose to go down past
three and I didn’t stop with my plastic
experiment I created an organization
called impact Revolution and with this
project I’ve been able to reach
thousands of people through a podcast
where I talked to CEOs to entrepreneurs
activists and artists about ideas of
sustainability and impact that I
consider worth spreading I went to
conferences to talk to those important
people about initiatives they were doing
I’ve started and clean up hikes in the
mountains of Madrid and plugging runs
that is you go jogging while picking up
litter and we’ve done circular economy
startup days where we helped
entrepreneurs launch their own projects
that rethink the way that we use our
waste and also in September I will
launch the traveling trashed or a bike
trip that goes from Paris over Belgium
Netherlands up to Berlin was a bike
dragging a mountain of plastic trash
behind me and in every major city that I
will pass there’s gonna be an event
with politicians with business leaders
and all different stakeholders where we
find solutions for a plastic problem but
the main message to you is that you do
not need to be as crazy and passionate
about plastic as I am there are simple
steps that you can take much not as
complex as myself very very simple and
easy that you can implement in your
daily life the next time you walk into a
coffee shop I have a challenge for you
it’s something daring order your coffee
to stay and take those two minutes out
of your day to drink that cup while
talking to the barista and skip the
disposable one that you usually take in
your bathroom swap your disposable soap
and your shampoo for solid ones no need
for vinegar here just use one the
different use of plastic packaging when
you go shopping finally bring your own
bag and refuse to put those two tomatoes
in a separate plastic bag because you
might as well just take the sticker put
it on the fruit and walk with that to
the cashier and if you buy a shirt in a
shop then just put that shirt in your
own first because you really don’t need
an extra bag for it do you when you go
out for a drink order it without a straw
and I think that tonight I’ve given all
of you enough reasons to never buy a
plastic water bottle again and lastly I
want to advise you to be spontaneous
creative and to have fun while you do
this share your experience with the
people around you because that way you
can multiply the impact that you’re
little change has in the totality of the
world in those few minutes of my talk
another million of plastic elephants was
born but we’re not hopeless
right we can change something your
decisions can become revolutions of
impact because all of us are
changemakers by the fact that we live
that we wake up every morning and take
some choices we shape the world we live
in and I want all of you to become proud
changemakers proud of what you leave
behind in this planet thank you [Applause]
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