This week I spoke with Kate Nelson (AKA Plastic Free Mermaid)! Kate is an avid waterwoman, science communicator, plastics consultant, and author of “I Quit Plastics: And You Can Too”. 

We discuss how imminent the need to change the way we consume is, whether we have any power to change production and challenge big corporations, and why the culture of environmentalism, recycling and farmer’s markets has bourgeois connotations. What will make the majority of people change the way they behave? 

Activism

Kate’s conservation work is currently centred in supporting two plastic activism causes: 

1. Plastic Free Byron: a local initiative to help her hometown phase out single-use plastics. She is fundraising this through "Products with Purpose" that can be purchased on her website and she is documenting the process as a case study for others to implement in their towns.

2. Plastic Health Summit: an international summit on the emerging science on plastic's impact on humans and the environment. She is helping to report on and amplify this breaking research this month.

Follow her on Instagram for entertaining educational solutions and tips to quit plastics PLUS updates on her current plastics activism campaigns.

She translates science for top international plastics researchers through fascinating and fun interviews on her Youtube channel and Instagram channel. She prioritises this work due to the incredibly negative health implications caused by our daily overexposure to plastics--from synthetic carpets to plastic packaging to fast fashion. When she learned plastic doesn't biodegrade, she quit using plastics. When she learned our contact with plastic causes obesity, developmental disorders, cancer, heart disease, and infertility--she dedicated her career to helping translate this important science. The science which competes with the convenience plastic offers.

Youtube: youtube.com/c/plasticfreemermaid

Her book ‘I QUIT PLASTICS’ is available now:

www.iquitplastics.com/book

She offers in person Mermaid Retreats as well as an online Mermaid Retreat to adventure into one's higher purpose, deepen one's nature connection, meet like-minded mermaids, and quit plastics. 

Online Mermaid Retreat: www.plasticfreemermaid.teachable.com