Have you ever wondered where the problems in the world today would exist if we have deeper connection to ourselves, others, and the environment, and acted from that place? Welcome to the conscious action podcast with your host, Brian Berneman. Who believe that connection is the key to taking conscious action as individuals and creating a better world. We are here to raise awareness and inspire meaningful action by sharing stories, knowledge, and conversations.
With thought leaders and change makers from sustainability to well being and everything related to conscious living, our mission is to empower you to be the change that you want to see in the world. Welcome everyone to a new episode of the Conscious Action Podcast. I am Brian Berneman, your host. And for this episode, I wanted to explore once again, as I have done a few years ago, plastic free July.
This challenge or this movement that has been now live for many years, and that I have been part of as a participant for many, many years, and as I was in my own journey to Understand my impact on my footprint in this world and understanding how can I live more consciously? How can I live more with an in alignment with my values and what I believe in? How can I do this better, more differently, thinking differently, behaving differently, creating change for myself and my behaviors?
And my tendencies and therefore changing how I consume and use things. And when many years ago, um, in 2018, as I was in this path, I decided on Plastic Free July to take on the challenge to refuse any single use plastics for the month. I decided to go one step further. I decided to try to, um, not create. Any rubbish at all as well. Um, after the month happened, I decided to carry on.
And whilst I was in that space in July, 2018, I came across some people that were actually collecting and auditing their own rubbish. Um, they were keeping it, so some people were looking into their rubbish bins and just seeing what they were using and seeing how can perhaps they can, um, change that behavior. Is there an alternative way of consuming that which was in the rubbish bin so that they didn't create any rubbish?
As I was doing that, some people had, uh, some jars that as well, they were collecting their rubbish. So I was, in that July, I was cleaning one of the almond butter jars that I was eating and I decided if I'm creating any rubbish, I'm just going to put it in there. So I decided no more plastics, no more single use plastics. I'm putting the rubbish there and it's been now 2013. So it's over five years now. Um, I'm still on the same chart. It's almost at its limit.
So for the ones that are, um, listening to us and not watching, then I am holding my hand, the chart with all of the rubbish that I have created. Um, the interesting thing has been that. Everything that is in here, or most of it, not everything, actually, it was my decision to still purchase it. And this comes back to understanding my values and understanding what I care about, and understanding that there's a few things that I haven't been able to find an alternative, and I still choose.
To buy that, uh, as I often share with many, um, that here in New Zealand, the bananas to buy, uh, for trade, organic bananas, I need to buy them with a little bit of a sleeve, uh, plastic.
So. That's what I am still choosing to do and there's a few others from some events or Festivals that I've been to that they give you some of these wristbands And I wasn't able to say no because if not, I couldn't be in so that was Mostly what's in here and now like I've done this For myself, as well as because I know when with my students and sometimes, you know, when there's an actual physical representation of something, sometimes that inspires more than just sharing
my story and sharing what I'm doing, um, because I am sharing something that makes others know this is possible. So, living in a city, you know, working, um. And still being able to have this as the amount of rubbish that I have created in the last five plus years. And this is not about me. This is just about me challenging myself. This is about inspiring others. Hopefully, and if not, all good, I am still going to do this.
And for me, this, it's very interesting because every time that there's, you know, like the day off or the month off or different challenges like this, it's very, um, interesting because I always feel like that's not necessary every day.
Should be the day of this, you know, it's like father's day for example, like every day should be father's day If I actually care about my dad then, you know, I don't need a special day to remind me That I actually can tell something to my dad that I show gratitude or appreciation. Um, you know, it could be the day of the, the ocean and it's like, well, like, I don't need one day to care about the ocean.
Every day I can care about the ocean and yet I understand the power as well of how having a specific time and place for Remembering especially for those that perhaps they are not keeping this in their mind, how this can be powerful. Therefore, I do invite you, all of you, if you're listening to take part of Plastic Free July, just as I did.
And especially if you care about the environment, if you care about Um, your reduction of single use plastics, if you care about taking responsibility for your place on this earth, and that is a big one because not, no, it's not all of us that we decide to take responsibility for our place and to decide to make a change to decide that actually what I do matters. And if I can do something differently, I can show others how things can be done differently as well.
So taking self responsibility is a huge step in creating these changes. And ideally, we all do that. Ideally, we all take responsibility for our workplace and for how we can actually have a huge impact on those that are around us and the people in our community, even beyond. So I do challenge you to.
Take part of this, um, plastic ritualite, check out, there's so many resources online, like there's no lack of information of what to do on how you can swap different things of how you can, um, understand more than Waste hierarchy to refuse things to reuse what you already have, even if it's plastic, you know, like the things that I already have, I keep on using them because I don't want to buy something that would be, you know, quote unquote, more sustainable just because it
is, you know, like already here, the most sustainable thing is what we already have. We don't want to create anymore. So I invite you to, to see how can you do this yet? The most challenging thing of all, as always, as I share with everyone, is creating changes for ourselves. We are usually not that keen on making changes. We are comfortable where we are. And to create changes, it takes a lot of, you know, courage. It takes a lot of will. Sometimes, sometimes some effort. Sometimes discipline.
We need to understand how can we create sustainable changes for ourselves? Because if, as an example, I was consuming every single day a lot of single use plastics and then from one day to the next, I decided to change everything, Am I actually ready to do that? Can I actually change? Can I actually create that change for my behavior and keep it up? Or do perhaps, or do I perhaps need to slowly reduce one thing, change one thing? And that is the way of making it more sustainable for myself.
I need to understand where I am and understand as well, this is a huge part of our psychology and our behaviors. So making sure that we pay attention to that. And the easiest way for me to do that is one, understand what you care about. If you understand what you care about, it is easy to have that as the direction or the reminder of why you would do something. So, understand what you care about, understand your values. I have talked extensively about this on different episodes on the podcast.
Check them out if you need to. And understanding as well, how can you create the conditions that allows you to do this? That might mean Getting more information, watching some documentaries or some videos or reading some books about this, following, if you use social media, following people that are actually doing this, inspiring others, sharing information, and, and surrounding yourself as well with people that are actually doing this.
If you go to meetups or to events or to gatherings with like minded people, then it is easier to do that. It is easier to help each other, to hold each other accountable, and to support each other as we create these transitions for ourselves. So, I do invite you to be part of this, um, challenge and this movement of Plastic Fridge Alive, refusing single use plastic, at least for the month. And hopefully, um, continuing it and as well.
Invite others, you know, in your family, in your household challenge as a household, how can you reduce that, um, that amount of rubbish or single use plastic that you might bring into your house as a family, it might be a beautiful challenge to do something with, um, your parents or with your kids, uh, communities, our work as workplaces, you know, like there's so many different things, and this also helps us to actually notice.
Ah, perhaps at work we're doing certain things that are not necessary. We could, instead of having single use coffee cups, we could actually take mugs and just wash them every single day. And it's little things like that, that actually, even though it seems that it's just little things, it has a huge impact.
Because then people notice that then they might change their behavior elsewhere and that has a huge ripple effect So notice all of the areas where you can create changes in your life Invite others to join so it makes it easier for yourself And if needed use it as a challenge sometimes, you know, like people need a challenge So I invite you to do that and I hope that together We do every single day A little thing that connects us more to how we want to be and how we want to live and how we want
to see a world that is actually thriving and beautiful and nice for everyone to live in and for the next generations. So thank you everyone for being here. As always, I will see you in the next episode and have a beautiful rest of your day. What did you like the most about this episode? Take a moment to think about what change you can make in your life today.
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