April 2024 Meeting speaker recap
Plastic is Forever
Ten steps to zero waste by Benedetta Treves
“No more time to study, discuss and think. It’s time to act!” says Benedetta with passion and conviction. The evening was dedicated to sharing both the terrible situation we are in with garbage filling our oceans and sidewalks AND what we can each do to participate in the solution. We have all heard this before: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, but Benedetta adds seven more steps and brings urgency. Her passion is contagious, she reminds us of the power we each have to reduce our plastic waste. Instead of feeling overwhelmed at the size of the problem Benedetta invites us to take action in our own lives.
Benedetta is a native Florentine and has always loved Mother Earth. She studied earth sciences in Italy and the USA and worked as a field geologist at CNR in the University of Florence.
Benedetta began with some sobering statistics and heart wrenching images. It is estimated that we each ingest the amount of plastic in a credit card every week.* Plastic has now even been found in placentas.
She showed us how the ocean currents keep the great pacific plastic patch floating in several huge areas covering every one of our oceans. In fact, there is a plastic patch also in the Mediterranean near Corsica. The ratio of plastic to plankton in the oceans is six to one.*
The solution: ZERO WASTE STRATEGY
Benedetta gave advice and practical hints condensed into ten steps to reduce waste in our own households.
Gandhi: “We each need to be the garbage men of ourselves”
REFERENCES:
—-Rob Greenfield wearing plastic and Ted talk on food waste:
—-The founder and Bible on Zero Waste: (also available in Italian and many other languages)
—-Paul Connett , Jeremy Irons, Cecilia Allen. The Zero Waste Solution: Untrashing the Planet One Community at a Time, 2013
—Captain Charles Moore, Plastic Ocean, 2011. The sailor who discovered the great Pacific Plastic Patch. With Cassandra Phillips co-author
—-Rossano Ercolini, Rifiuti Zero, 2018; Non bruciamoci il Futuro, 2014; Noi siamo Oceano, 2024,
—-Keep Clean and Run, Roberto Cavallo, several volumes. Reports on his team cleanup marathons across Italy
—-Plastic in our bodies and food
—-Plastic Planet, Thimfilm, www.plastic-planet.at
—-TRASHED, VERSO RIFIUTI ZERO, www.trashedfilm.com, UK, 2012, Satya.doc, DVD with Jeremy Irons
– Garbage Warrior, 2007. ICA films
On FOOD SCAMS
–The Dark side of Chocolate
—Jonathan Safran Foer, We are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast, 2019