Plastic Free

November 9, 2020
“Plastic Free July” founder Prince-Ruiz tells the story of how she started an environmental movement and offers solutions for decreasing waste in this accessible account. In 2011, a visit to an Australian recycling facility left her “overwhelmed and frankly mortified” at the amount of trash she saw. She decided to go plastic-free for a month, a challenge she invited colleagues and friends to take up as well. With time and the help of social media, the challenge became a global movement that, Prince-Ruiz writes, has reached over 250 million people. Prince-Ruiz also provides an introduction to basic environmentalist concepts (the effects of ocean debris) and as she recounts her personal story, intersperses easy tips for those looking to lessen their reliance on plastics, such as replacing single-use plastic bags and straws. Though none of the advice is new, the earnestness with which Prince-Ruiz conveys it is motivating (“One day I want to walk along the shoreline at my local beach and look down at shells and seaweed, and not be expecting to find plastic”). Readers eager to reduce their plastic consumption would do well to pick up this excellent primer.

December 1, 2020
A comprehensive guidebook to anti-plastic activism. Haunted by the deluge of plastic waste clogging up our ecosystems and killing wildlife, Australian activist Prince-Ruiz took action to stem the rising tide of plastic threatening the health of the planet. As she writes in a book co-authored by Finn, her formative, "penny-drop moment" came in 2011 when she toured a recycling facility and was struck by the sheer amount of waste that overwhelmed the workers. "The heart of the problem is how much we consume," writes Prince-Ruiz, "and we can't recycle our way out of it." Since then, her personal journey through waste and recycling has become a global effort called the Plastic Free July movement, which involves more than 250 million people in 177 countries. The first third of the book is about the author's unsurprisingly difficult personal task of eradicating all use of plastics for a month and how this gradually snowballed into a worldwide conservationist phenomenon. But Prince-Ruiz also delves into broader issues of eco-sustainability and unpacks our "throwaway society," epitomized by single-use plastics. As in many books focused on environmental issues, the statistics are staggering, and this one is no different: "Since mass plastic production began just 60 years ago," writes the author, "8.3 billion metric tonnes of plastic has been produced....As of 2015 around 9 per cent had been recycled, 12 per cent incinerated, and 79 per cent accumulated in landfills or the natural environment." Of course, the author's highly organized and meticulous campaign against plastics isn't for everyone. For example, not all readers can commit to making their own soda crackers from scratch (to avoid using plastic wrap)--though it's not that difficult to switch to a bamboo toothbrush or pick up your dog's waste with toilet paper. To her credit, Prince-Ruiz never gets preachy or shrill in this passionate call to action. Despite some quotidian impracticalities, this is sage advice for reducing plastic consumption, a necessity for our survival.

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