Women are usually seen as “closer” to Nature. Maybe it is because we say Mother Nature and so, right from the start, it seems that women and nature are connected. And, when it comes to pollution, women can become really protective towards nature because they want to leave a better world for their children. So, I decided to portray three amazing women who fight every day against the issue of plastic.
Emily Penn, co-founder and director of eXXpedition
“On my extensive voyages across the globe I have discovered that it is the same story everywhere—not only in the gyres, but all the way from the Tropics to the Arctic. Our oceans have become a fine soup of plastic fragments.”
Emily Penn is the co-founder and director of the eXXpedition founded in 2014. It is a marine expedition composed of women. In October 2019, 300 women (aged between 18 and 72, from all over the world), embarked on a 2-year world tour to study and find solutions to the plastic issue in our oceans. The group traveled to study and understand the impact of plastics on our oceans but also on women’s bodies and health as plastics are highly toxic.
Melinda Watson, RAW founder
She is an influential activist and educator who founded the RAW Foundation, more than ten years ago. Her goal is to help the world get rid of unnecessary plastic. She investigated plastic pollution from different regions such as South America during her four-month expedition.
She realized that the number of single-use plastic water bottles at festivals and events had to be reduced. And so, she developed the RAW bottles, a reusable stainless steel water bottle.
She even made a partnership with the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) to tackle the issue of plastic waste at festivals. Her initiative encouraged more than 60 festivals to commit to banning single-use plastics by 2021.
Nzambi Matee, a great inventor
You probably heard about this young Kenyan woman who founded the famous start-up called Gjenge Makers. She recycles plastic waste into bricks that are stronger than concrete. “Plastic is a poorly used and misunderstood material. Its potential is enormous, but its afterlife can be disastrous”, she said in an interview.
So, she decided to rethink the afterlife of plastic and recycle it to use its potential. By making this, Nzambi Matee moved from a linear economy to turn into a circular economy.
Not only did her great innovation help recycle 20 tons of plastic waste, but she also created about one hundred jobs in its country.
There are so many inspiring women who fight against plastic pollution that we can’t mention all of them. However, there’s a way to support all these amazing women by making small steps every day but also by sharing beterre and let people join us on our mission to replace plastic step by step together.
References
https://exxpedition.com/crew-member/emily-penn-mission-director/
https://raw-bottles.org/international-womens-day-female-plastic-pioneers/
