T4T Final

[00:00:00] Crystal: [00:00:00] Want to know how YouTube can be a force for nature. Head on over to forces for nature.com and sign up to receive a free guide with practical actions that you can start taking today. I’m crystal Z Macelli and welcome to the forces for nature show.

Do you find yourself overwhelmed with all the dooming, the new hero of these

Sharona: [00:00:21] days?

Crystal: [00:00:22] Do you feel like you it’s just one person can’t really make it. Forces for nature cuts through that negativity. In each episode, I interview somebody who is doing great things for animals and the environment we talked through, the problem they’re addressing the solution.

They have found what keeps them going. And we’ll leave you with practical action tips so that you too can become a forest for nature. [00:00:45] Today’s guest is Sharona Schneider co-founder of Tuesdays for trash homegrown movement that went global almost over. Yeah. Oftentimes, it’s really easy to feel like you as just one person can’t really have much of an impact, be it positive or negative.

However, Sharona is a prime example of how her choice to do something. Quote, unquote small has had ripple effects throughout the world. She and her friend, Wanda decided to do litter pickups as their way to safely hangout and do something beneficial during the pandemic little did they know so many others were yearning to do that?

hi, Sharona. Thank you so [00:01:30] much for joining me on forces for nature. It’s so great to have you.

Sharona: [00:01:33] Hi crystal. Thanks for having me. It’s exciting to be here. So today I want to

Crystal: [00:01:37] talk about trash and litter. This is an issue that those in countries with developed garbage collection systems might not see so easily, such as in the U S.

But even the U S is in the top 20 of all countries generating the greatest amount of ocean bound trash. Do you have any stats that you can share with us regarding this?

Sharona: [00:01:58] Yeah, in terms of trash, about 8 million metric tons gets dumped in the ocean every year and that’s just plastic. And you usually find that like cigarette butts are among the highest items that are littered along with plastic and just like other [00:02:15] miscellaneous items to get in there.

Fishing gear gets loaded in the ocean, um, and discarded. And there’s a lot of different things that we wouldn’t necessarily consider to be trash that. And up on the ground and then get washed into the ocean. And so whatever you use and discard it, usually at its end of life. At this point in our society ends up as trying.

Crystal: [00:02:40] And if someone’s not throwing something directly into the ocean or doesn’t necessarily live right by the ocean, how does our trash end up there?

Sharona: [00:02:47] Yeah. So most of the time it ends up in the ocean because it’s on the ground and then the wind carries it or something like that. And then it rains and it ends up in drains and most drains actually [00:03:00] we directly to the ocean storm drains, especially.

Anything that goes to wash down there. It leads to a water system and the water systems lead to the ocean. And so even if you toss it in a park and then it rains and a washers to drain, then that’s usually how it ends up in our, and

Crystal: [00:03:15] unfortunately, just because we can’t see it once it washes away, it doesn’t mean it’s gone.

There are

Sharona: [00:03:20] a lot of places that obviously waste control. To the degradation of livelihoods and forces people to move. Like in Jakarta, a lot of the waterways are completely polluted with plastic and trash so people can utilize the waterways anymore. So they have to move to different parts of the place and it affects fishing and stuff.

If there’s a lot of trash in the ocean or bodies of water, then you’re not going to catch as many fish because it [00:03:45] contaminants or water, stuff like that. So I think that it. It’s all related in one way or another. And we specifically affects communities and I would directly link it to the idea of more people and more communities having to relocate because of the wastage.

Crystal: [00:04:04] To me. It’s actually funny that in this day and age, we even have a trash problem anyway, because I feel like everybody knows, you know, don’t litter, but it’s something that people still do all the time. And especially now I’m seeing more and more like masks on the ground, which is just so disheartening.

But you have decided to do something about it. Can you tell me about [00:04:30] how did Tuesdays for trash go from just a couple of you picking up litter to a whole organized movement?

Sharona: [00:04:36] The way that that happens still blows my mind today. And it’s definitely something that we were hopeful for, but didn’t anticipate to happen as quickly as it did.

Most of the time you kind of ask yourself, why do people litter? It feels like common sense that they wouldn’t, but it’s usually something out of convenience or like it flies out of your car. And unfortunately, most things that end up on the ground are plastic. So they last there forever, but the movement kind of started because.

Myself. And one of my really good friends want to McNeilly decided that we wanted to do something for our communities, by going out into our university park blocks and picking up trash during the [00:05:15] pandemic. There were no other volunteer opportunities at the time. So we were like, why don’t we just go do this?

It’s a safe way to practice social distancing while also giving back to our environment. And so we did that and it was just so fulfilling. So many people think does we just had such a good time bonding. So we decided to keep doing every Tuesday. And I immediately thought of gratitude works for us for future movement, which has always been an inspiration to me.

And she started that just by posting on social media, like every Friday, her doing her thing and caring for the environment. Why don’t we just do that with trash and encourage people around the world to join us. And it took off from there. We started one Tuesday and I’ve been going strong ever since it’s been almost a year and a half of us doing this.

Now we have eight chapters you’ve picked up [00:06:00] over 10,000 pounds of trash. We have people like 20 countries pick up trash. So it’s just kind of taken off in the best. Face-off.

Crystal: [00:06:09] When did you realize that this, this homegrown movement was starting to take off? I

Sharona: [00:06:16] think we really started to realize that it was taking off one environmental organizations that we have loved for years and years started to support us false on social media, specifically kiss the ground.

Those kinds of organizations that we’ve always looked up to were taking note of what we were doing. And specifically Nikki Reed, she’s an actress and Austin environmentalist. She really just started getting involved with us and like loves what we’re doing. And her believing in us was kind of a moment of like, [00:06:45] wow, this is something that’s worth doing.

Crystal: [00:06:48] Well, that’s huge actually. Now that you say that I do remember cause I follow Nikki Reed as well. And I do remember seeing, I don’t know if you guys did a takeover of her account one day or whatever it was, but I saw the connection. How great is that? How do you even reach so many people just posting on social media and hashtagging or

Sharona: [00:07:09] I think.

The best way that we’ve been able to connect with people is through our partnerships specifically, we work with an organization called her back runners, and they have been able to elevate our reach on an international level because they have runners in every part of the world. And we did a run for the planet with them and have continued to do those by [00:07:30] annually.

And that’s been an awesome way to get more people involved and raise money from environmental nonprofit. And it’s just been a really cool way to also engage in community and have people start getting their friends involved and families involved. What is it called again? Their background. Dirt

Crystal: [00:07:47] bag renders.

I have to, I’ll have to look them up and they do runs for the

Sharona: [00:07:53] environment. Basically they’re a group that just encourages people to run and like showcases running specifically in a very, not glamorous way. It’s just sweating, getting it done exercising. And so picking out trash kind of ties directly into that because it’s still not so pretty aspect of life.

There’s a lot of trash in different natural areas, trails and stuff. So that [00:08:15] tends to be an area that they focus on now, the environment and just keeping it. Yeah. And so how big

Crystal: [00:08:20] is Tuesdays for trash

Sharona: [00:08:21] now? Um, Tuesdays for trash has eight chapters going to be nine. Once I start the Televiv chapter here soon, our team has grown a lot.

It used to be just wander NAI. And now we have a bunch of interns that are helping us with miscellaneous things. They’re all really passionate. They’re young, mostly women as well, which is awesome. And we’ve had people in 20 countries pick up trash and we’re hoping that it just goes global. He continue to expand.

Crystal: [00:08:50] What do you think inspires people to do

Sharona: [00:08:52] this? I think it’s the aspect of just immediate gratification, like picking up trash, you see the [00:09:00] immediate result once you do it. And it’s kind of a way of therapy. I find it really therapeutic to go on walks and bring a trash bag with me and just pick up trash because like, It’s obviously not my trash, but it’s my planet and it’s my environment and I’m in it every single day.

And so being able to clean it and say that I was the one that cleaned it, like it’s such a fulfilling aspect for me personally. And I know that the people that love doing it, usually love doing it with their friends and their family. Cause it’s just a fun activity, especially when it was during quarantine.

Like it was a really good excuse to go outside and just do it in a safe way because you’re wearing gloves and mask. So I think that was a really big factor.

Crystal: [00:09:39] Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Sharona: [00:09:43] Big question. Do you have [00:09:45] like a one narrow way of, well, did you ever

Crystal: [00:09:48] think you’d start a global movement?

Sharona: [00:09:50] Oh yeah, that definitely was not in my game plan, especially not a year ago.

I went to school for accounting did not even study environmentalism. So this definitely turned from a hobby into my life’s work very quickly and starting a movement wasn’t ever in the cards for me, because I’m not really someone who likes to be the face of things. I like working behind the scenes and doing the organizational logistical side of things.

So it’s definitely an adjustment I’ve had to make, but I think it’s been just. The most incredibly gratifying experiences I’ve ever had and [00:10:30] it’s happened in a very. Humbling way, because I’ve really appreciated the activists like Gretta, even Congresswoman like Alexandria, Ocasio, Cortez, just the pressure and mental pressure that they feel in those positions, all the work that happens behind the scenes, the people that they have to navigate, like haters and everything.

It’s been a huge learning. Also in terms of networking, working with businesses, partnerships, I will tell our entire websites. That was a huge learning opportunity for me running an organization. It’s been really fun, challenging, but just super, it was a really great opportunity to build my skillset and be really proud of the things that I’ve accomplished.

Do

Crystal: [00:11:12] you guys have any experience with haters [00:11:15] yourself?

Sharona: [00:11:16] It’s actually kind of funny. We had one instance where someone created a page called a Wednesdays for waste, and they went on our Instagram and started commenting like a lot of hateful things. Like it was a photo of one, his grandparents picking up trash and they were like, oh, the socks were like, whatever.

And I’m like, it’s her grandpa. Like the cutest couple you’ve ever seen picking up trash and then their bio, it said to this, your trash sucks, like, blah, blah, blah. We just blocked them. But it was kind of also a fulfilling moment for us knowing that we’re worthy of making an entire account just to bully us.

Like it was really funny. So we kind of took it as well. Moment of we’ve actually made it. If now we have a hater who cares this much [00:12:00] to try and lower up.

Crystal: [00:12:03] I absolutely love the way you look at it from that perspective. So you started this when you were both, you and Wanda were both living in Portland. Now, now you have since left, but I wanted to know, do you help organize the cleanups?

Take place outside of Portland. And I guess outside of now where you

Sharona: [00:12:25] are living. So I do play a role in organizing the cleanups that happen outside of Portland and the respective areas that I’m in just more managerial. We’ve created a lot of folders and resources for our different chapters to utilize, so they can be very independent in doing so.

And they kind of just send us emails to approve different things. Cause [00:12:45] obviously it’s using our name and we want to make sure. It’s not contributing to something that’s negative or like harmful to communities. But most of the time, our chapter leaves are very autonomous, which is awesome. And it’s kind of something that like, once you’ve done it once you know how to do it again, and also organizing a trash cleanup is super easy.

All you need is people equipment and the fun aspect we love throwing in fun aspects, like a theme or food, just to make it even more exciting to get on the committee. Now,

Crystal: [00:13:15] what do you say to people who feel like it’s not their responsibility to pick up other people’s

Sharona: [00:13:20] trash? Gosh, I think it’s a very selfish mindset because just because it’s not your trash doesn’t mean it’s not your planet.

And [00:13:30] it’s also a very privileged mindset because there are people who are directly on the front line to, it’s not their trash either, but it’s affecting their way of life directly. There are communities out in the Pacific ocean islands. Used to be able to fish and get their food from the oceans around them very easily.

And now, like there are surrounding oceans are filled with trash and there’s less fish. And so the food that they used to catch is not as prevalent and it’s affecting their ability to survive. So you not picking up trash, even if it’s not yours, it’s affecting someone. And I think that it’s a very narrow mindset and doesn’t account for the bigger picture and scope of the problem.

Crystal: [00:14:12] What’s the weirdest thing that you’ve picked [00:14:15] up.

Sharona: [00:14:15] I actually pose this question to our chapter and one of our meetings and a lot of them have found just chicken breasts, like the food just laying in their neighborhoods just randomly. And it, it just breasts. Yeah. Yeah. And it happened, the fact that it happened in different states was very, just astonishing to me.

I haven’t seen that yet, but it was very exciting.

Crystal: [00:14:43] I would have to say that is one of the weirdest things. See?

Sharona: [00:14:47] Yeah.

Crystal: [00:14:50] So with all the trusts that you have been able to pick up, are you able to recycle any of it or are you just relocating it to

Sharona: [00:14:57] the dumpster? The hard [00:15:00] thing about recycling the trash is that usually if it’s on the ground, it’s too bent or like molded in a shape that isn’t going to be accepted anymore for recycling.

Also difficult part is that our recycling systems is so outdated that only 9% of the stuff that you send through recycling actually gets recycled. So it kind of feels counterintuitive in that sense. Our DC chapter is definitely working on ways that they can like start bringing specific bags for recycling and trash and trying to mitigate.

Things in that sense, but what we found is it’s more of a challenge and it’s often not super effective, but we are looking at working with programs that if we organize like a big cleanup, when we specifically tell our participants [00:15:45] to look out for good plastics, to put into a certain bag and give it to an organization, then it can be repurposed.

I

Crystal: [00:15:52] was reading. I believe it was your website about Senate bill 14. Can you explain what Senate bill

Sharona: [00:16:00] 14 is? Yeah. Senate bill 14 was a plastic spill in the Oregon Senate for this session that was trying to. Figure out a way to, uh, make producers more responsible for the passage that they create, because oftentimes companies will say that something’s recyclable, but they haven’t actually solidified that aspect until then consumers just assume that they can recycle it.

But then their programs are actually recycling or it doesn’t actually get recycled down the line [00:16:30] because not every kind of plastic can be used. And so this bill was. Make producers directly responsible for that. And usually what that would mean is that the producers are start considering making their items out of more sustainable materials.

That’ll actually be able to be repurposed. And then it’s easier for the consumers to feel confident that what they’re getting and what the label says is actually true. It didn’t pass this session, but there was another bill Senate bill 5 82 with similar goals with recycling that did pass the session into the ways and means committee.

I haven’t checked on it recently, but I’m very confident that something along those lines, in terms of updating the recycling system, at least in Oregon, was passed this session, which is a really good step in the right direction. [00:17:15] Definitely not as strong as we need it to be. But Elise, there is more attention being drawn to this.

Crystal: [00:17:21] Yeah, you actually bring up a really great point in that. So many things these days are labeled as recycling. But depending on where you live, that you’re misspelled, it might not accept it. And so just as a side note for the listener check with your municipality as to what is accepted, because if you throw the wrong thing away into the recycling, it might contaminate the whole load.

And so they’d have to throw out the whole thing. So that’s just. A good side note too, to point out. So you recently moved to Israel and Wanda is stepping down from the [00:18:00] organization. What is the future for Tuesdays?

Sharona: [00:18:02] For trash? Yeah, it’s definitely, we’ve had some organizational shift. And so I’ve kind of taken the main leadership role in the movement.

And I plan to continue to be sort of the face or the main point of contact for big things that we organize, but we’ve done a lot more delegating, some interns that are the chapter leads for our DC chapter and we’ve onboarded some social media managers, just so it makes it easier as we continue to grow, to be able to facilitate that.

In the future. We’re definitely hoping to reach priors for future level organizing. So having chapters, hopefully in every country and being able to give them the autonomy to continue the mission of the movement while still [00:18:45] just being on the backend of things and supporting us. And as I said, I’m hoping to start a Televiv chapter here and just getting more communities involved.

But our main goal is to kind of create like a set of resources that can just be given to anyone who is interested. And then they know exactly how to answer any question that they might have so that we don’t have to be falling up consistently, but can rather than monitor and encourage them to continue to organize for different events that we want to do world.

Crystal: [00:19:16] Tuesdays for trash is almost, you could say it’s your side hustle because you’re working for another company that is happens to be related to trash as well. So can you tell me a little bit about that?

Sharona: [00:19:28] Absolutely. So here, [00:19:30] I’m now a marketing intern for a company called QBQ materials and they actually turn household trash into a sustainable material.

So like things that end up in the landfill or actually being taken out of there. Hi to different materials that can now be recycled infinitely, and it tackles the waste issue. Correct.

Crystal: [00:19:50] Wow. Okay. So were they pulling plastic out of the landfill and making different kinds of other plastic?

Sharona: [00:19:55] Yeah, so they’re definitely taking out plastics, like other organic material as well.

And they’ve been able to turn it into things like hanger is trays chairs, trash bins, like water bottles, pretty much anything can be made out of this material. And they specifically partner with people like McDonald’s and Mercedes [00:20:15] Benz. And it’s super exciting because we’re about to go international and get involved in a lot of industries and markets, because obviously we have a huge single waste issue.

So being able to utilize this material instead of plastic, that’s just freshly made is a really awesome alternative and definitely needed. And then just.

Crystal: [00:20:34] Wow. So they’re able to take trash from the landfill and give it a second life. Is this, are these products readily available to consumers?

Sharona: [00:20:43] Yeah, so they have a few that are on the market right now, but it’s more of like, they work with manufacturers to produce these items and you’ll start seeing their logo.

It’s like a sunrise logo out. Markets and consumer market pretty soon, I would give it a few months before it’s really [00:21:00] noticeable, but definitely yeah, stay on the lookout. And I think that it’s going to be something that’s really positive for every person around the world. That’s exciting

Crystal: [00:21:09] to hear.

Sharona: [00:21:09] What’s the name again?

You BQ material. So

Crystal: [00:21:13] how can people start a chapter? How can they get involved in this

Sharona: [00:21:17] whole move? Yeah. The first step is picking up trash consistently every Tuesday, because that’s going to be something that the chapter promotes. So if you already have that into your daily routine, then it’d be super easy to like advertise and get more people involved.

Second step is to send us an email, requesting an interest and wanting to set up a meeting. And we have some information on our website about starting a chapter, kind of walks through how [00:21:45] to guide and everything that’s required for it. And after that, we would just set up a meeting and discuss it. And you’re good to go.

Crystal: [00:21:54] Now can just one or two

Sharona: [00:21:56] people. Yeah, our chapter is usually work best when we have three people leading it just, what we’ve seen is easiest, because then you can delegate roles and it doesn’t get boring. And no one feels like they’re doing too much and it’s easy when one person can’t make it to something that another person can take over.

But we also have a lot of chapters are led by one person and they also function really well. So any, and everyone is welcome. However many want to do. And it’s just setting up an Instagram in your state so that people specific to your state can down when you’re organizing events and [00:22:30] start getting involved and you can partner with different organizations in your state.

The real benefit of leading a chapter is that you get this notoriety just immediately from Tuesdays, for trashes or an organization. You gain an entire community of people that are really passionate about the environment and wanting to do something. And we have a lot of opportunities that come up in terms of activism that we plug our chapters into.

And so it’s really awesome just way to grow in environmentalism and sustainability. Well,

Crystal: [00:22:59] in addition to picking up trash that you see, do you have any other ideas that you can suggest for what

Sharona: [00:23:05] people can do? I think learning is a huge aspect because unfortunately our educational system does a really poor job of [00:23:15] educating communities on the climate and in school, especially, that’s just not emphasized to the scale that it needs to be.

And so I think that the best way for people to continue this sort of activism after picking up trash is learning more about what the waste issue is. Different organizations besides us are tackling it because there’s so many in this field. Also just kind of becoming activists in their own, right?

Through the knowledge that they’re learning and sharing it with their communities, talking about it at the dinner table, it’s usually a taboo topic because it’s so political these days, but I think it was really important to have those conversations and just kind of start bringing more awareness to them.

Crystal: [00:23:56] So where can people find more information about Tuesdays for

[00:24:00] Sharona: [00:23:59] trash? Tuesdays are trash has a website it’s just Tuesdays for trash.com. So if anyone wants to find more information, they can visit our website. We also have a lot of content on our Instagram and we post that weekly. And if there are any specific questions or if anyone wants to collaborate with us or become a partner, our email is very open it’s Tuesday’s trash at g-mail dot com and we respond very quickly.

So. Those are the main ways to get in touch with us. Yeah, sure. No,

Crystal: [00:24:29] this has been great. Congratulations on your success on this movement. Thank you for all that you’re doing. You’re making

Sharona: [00:24:37] a difference. Thank you. Thank you. This has been awesome.

Crystal: [00:24:43] Studies are showing that the amount of [00:24:45] trash ending up in the ocean is drastically greater than what we once realized.

This has far reaching implications on livelihoods, wildlife, and ecosystem. As does trash on the land, carry your trash with you until you find a place to properly dispose of it. Be conscious of your stuff on windy days at the beach, or I picnics consider even hosting a friendly competition with your kids as to who can pick up the most trash on a walk.

Every piece of litter of prevented or collected is one less eyesore and one less potential hazard for the infant. Don’t forget to go to forces for nature.com and sign up to receive email shownotes action tips and a free guide to help you start taking [00:25:30] practical actions today. Do you know someone else who would enjoy this episode?

I would be so grateful if you would share it with them, hit me up on Instagram and Facebook and let me know what actions you have been taking. Adopting. Just one habit can be a game too. Because imagine if a million people also adopted that, what difference for the world are you going to make today? .