MARIE CLAIRE RECOGNIZES ECO WARRIORS

We know at times that it may seem like our posts are about nothing but doom and gloom, but we are hopeful — especially when we realize that we are not alone in caring about the state of our environment.

Articles like the one from Marie Claire Magazine we’ve quoted and linked below, do provide a glimmer of hope.

How wonderful is it that Marie Claire includes an eco-warrior category in their Women of the Year competition?

And we know that if you’re reading our posts that YOU care.  Thank you, because that warms our hearts.

If talking trash was an Olympic sport, Lottie Dalziel would be bringing home the gold. Since founding her B-Corp, eco-friendly business Banish in 2018, Dalziel has made it her mission to empower others to be kinder to the planet, connecting with more than 100,000 Australians every day.

“It may seem small and insignificant, but I’m a really big believer in the collective action of multiple individuals making a really big difference,” says the current NSW Young Australian of the Year.

Through the Banish Recycling and Disposal (BRAD) program, which Dalziel also runs, 2 million blister packs have been diverted from landfill and recycled in the past five years.

As well as blister packs, the specialty program also saves from landfill hard-to-recycle household products such as coffee pods, plastic lids, razors, beauty bottles and those little sushi soy sauce fish – to the tune of thousands of kilograms. It’s an enormous but much-needed undertaking. In a space where there’s a lot of noise and green-washing, Dalziel is doing the work. And that work is having a real and lasting impact.

“When I first started BRAD, I didn’t believe anybody would post me their hard-to-recycle items in the mail and now I receive thousands every month and we’ve been able to create this impact,” says Dalziel. “It’s so exciting that so many Australians believe in the collective actions of individuals making a really big difference.”

LARISSA HALE
The co-founder and managing director of the Queensland Indigenous Women’s Ranger Network, Hale leads a network of First Nations women working to protect the Great Barrier Reef.  This year she joined Jacinda Ardern at The Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit in New York.

RENUKA FERNANDO
Since launching her charity ReLove in 2019, Fernando has provided essential household goods to people in vulnerable situations, including those fleeing domestic violence, experiencing homelessness, or seeking asylum. While sharing a helping hand to the people in our community who need it the most, ReLove is also saving furniture and whitegoods from landfill.

DR COLETTE HARMSEN
For more than a decade, Harmsen has been front and centre in protests against logging and mining in Tasmania. She works with the Bob Brown Foundation and considers herself to be a wildlife defender. In July, the veterinarian and staunch environmental activist was sentenced to three months’ prison for her ongoing protests against mining in Tasmania’s West.