 Marina McCoy, welcome. It's just a pleasure to meet you and talk about Waste Free Earth, which is the organization that you work with. Did you found that this organization? I did. In 2018. So tell us your path to starting an organization and what has inspired you to zero waste. Awesome. Well, thank you for having me. First off, it's a pleasure to be here. I started doing the work when I was 20 years old. I'm 28 right now, but I made my actual company legally in 2018. So pretty into the sustainability world for almost a decade. And what inspired me was I essentially found out I was a hypocrite. I was studying sustainability at school and wasn't really practicing what I preached. I was at a music festival when I was 19 outside of my hometown called the Friendly Gathering. And for some reason that year, I noticed a lot of trash and that I brought a lot of trash with me like the glow sticks, the infamous red solo cups, chip bags, all of that. And I was I must say quite repulsed myself for doing that. And from that moment, I became really obsessed with waste. And first, I kind of focused on food waste, and then it just evolved to this never ending rabbit hole of the whole waste epidemic. And I really believe that waste is at the center of climate change. I don't talk about climate change too much. But at the end of like at the middle, we definitely believe that waste is there because everything essentially is waste. And that's forgotten about a lot in the climate change movement. But fast forward, I the next year, when I was 20 years old, I reached out to the festival and asked if I could help with sustainability, not knowing what I was doing at all. They hired me as a rock star volunteer. I set up their whole sustainability program, did a waste audit, and everything just made sense to me. I can't really explain it. But when I was on site, I was able to see the systems, identify key race contributors, work with the attendees, work with the stakeholders. And the rest is kind of history. When I was in college, I started getting more and more clients still just kind of doing my own thing. And when I graduated in 2016, I had about like eight clients bought a sprinter van, converted into a home and traveled the country, presented on TEDx and was doing that until the pandemic where we got wiped out because we were in the vet industry, but we were able to do a successful pivot thanks to the Vermont community. And just a ton of supporters. And now we're doing zero waste consulting for businesses. So long-winded answer. No, no, no, that it's a fantastic founding story. And I think it follows the contours of many entrepreneurs and founders who they see a problem, they understand they have a gift for addressing it, and then they turn it into their life's work. And well, maybe not your life's work, you're young, but it sounds like, you know, your mission and then into organizational reality. So you said you were essentially focusing on events and you made the pivot to organizations. Is that the pivot that you made? Correct. How do you work with people? Yeah. So first off, we would do a waste audit of your biggest key contributors to recycling composting landfill, see if you've been tracking at all and knowing like what your biggest problems are, why people aren't sorting or composting or just like bringing a lot of single-use items into the office. It really depends on what level you want to go with sustainability stuff. We usually stay to start small, going, working with your staff members, internal stakeholders. And then if you're producing a lot of waste outside of day-to-day operations, that's where we really get system space, which is one of my favorite things. So we'll see, we'll start tracking, see where the waste is being produced the most and what areas we could do to recycle it. We actually prefer to have things repurpose or upcycled before they get recycled just because the recycling industry is not as efficient as we would hope it is. Like there's just, it's really tough, especially since there's no regulations on what companies can put on their products. So I could say compostable or recyclable without actually being it. So we really try to upcycle and repurpose as much as possible. So if you're going through a lot of tapes or paper, I'm trying to think of like what else may be producing by any of like the external hard drives, electronics, we would try to create systems for that. And then if you're on a smaller scale and you're not seeing the need to do that individually, that's where our community-shared systems come into place, where we're working with multiple businesses that aren't producing enough to really have an individual system themselves, but they want to take part in it. And so we gather multiple businesses together to make that possible. And what does upcycle mean? Upcycle means taking something that, let's see, we'll use a can for instance, even though like a soup can is highly recyclable, but you could do that and now make it into a pencil holder, a potted plant. You could use it to store things and just like upcycling it or repurposing it into something new. Also like with clothing, if you have clothes that are worn out and you're maybe not repairing them to the level that you would like or don't have the time for it, you can take bits and pieces of it like old t-shirts. We always recommend to cut them up into rags. So like you're repurposing that or upcycling it into something new. So those kind of go hand in hand upcycling and repurposing, but you're essentially creating a new life for the materials instead of just throwing it into the bin. And it's difficult because clothing is made up of so many different materials now. Plastic hides and there are different names within clothing. There's dozens and dozens of ways to say plastic. Things aren't as one material as it used to be like cotton or linen, things like that. So what we've been doing and what we post on our Instagram, Waste Free Earth, because that's more focused towards individuals, it's just giving creative ways to actually repurpose that t-shirt. So yeah, you can make rags, but you could also cut it up into longer pieces and then start reading it so that you can make like a bottom saucer for plants. So that way it kind of captures the water that's going through and then you could also throw it in the wash or just making your own koozies out of it. And also I'm blinking on the name the, what do you put, if you're on a counter and you have a cup and you don't want to stain it. A coaster. So you can make them in a coaster. So there's different ways. But then we really try to convince people to repair their stuff. But fast fashion is a big issue. And if you want to get into the social economics of it, is that unfortunately the fast fashion stuff is cheaper. But what we say, like if you're in a place of privilege, buy clothes that are made of like one material or at least sustainably made or just upcycled themselves. So that way that market can continue to build to make it a lower price point instead of contributing to the fast fashion. Well, and I, it's interesting that you said that that there's actually a term of art, of course there is, because I've noticed, especially I have a 21 year old daughter, and as she's grown up, it's been pretty clear that the retailers sell clothes ridiculously cheap prices, like $4.99 for a shirt. And, you know, whereas when I was younger, like we had one shirt or four shirts and it would last us for five years. And whereas these kids just keep buying clothes and then keep getting rid of the clothes. It's sort of like, well, it's like pretty much all how we treat most resources now. Yeah. Everything's replaceable. Yeah, fast resources. And I wanted to talk about my pet peeve, which is plastic wrap. And I was so excited to see that you've been thinking about plastic wrap too. How did you get into the importance of plastic wrap as something to recycle? And what are you doing about it? Yes. So one, it's awesome that you've been saving your plastic wrap. It definitely literally adds up, but it does make a difference taking the extra time to save it and make sure it's getting recycled. What it comes down to is, as I was talking before about all these different ways that you could upcycle repurpose a t-shirt, in reality, not everyone is going to take the time to do it. So that's when it's, even with me, it's like I go through these t-shirts and I have a bin that I've been waiting to repurpose, but it takes time. So just acknowledging that factor and then understanding that plastic film is also like that. Yeah, you could reuse the plastic bags as doggie bags or trash can liners, but unfortunately, a lot of our stuff just because of the system that we live in comes wrapped in plastic. So it's just really hard to avoid. So we're trying to set up a community shared system where we'll take that off of your plate. Like you collect the trash, but we'll have collect the plastic film. We'll have multiple drop-off areas throughout Chin and County, which will eventually expand outside, hopefully get the whole state on board, but making it really efficient for you and as effortless as possible, because if you're like going around town, you're able to drop it off instead of waiting for a specific day at the murk that you're able to drop it off. And it's usually during working hours and not everyone could take off work to do it. Again, the systems and the privilege and the accessibility that go along with it. And plastic film is like we want to get it out of the recycling. It tends to gum up the murks and really creates a huge problem. So the more we educate about plastic film, the less it will end up in the recycling stream, which will save on costs and save on repairs at the recycling facility. Additionally, what will happen too is people become more aware of their plastic intake. Because as you said, like you understand that you are trying to reduce too, which is great. But a lot of people, again, like they're just so used to getting this plastic that they're not even thinking about the race that they're producing. So when we have community shared systems, we're educating throughout the whole process of it, it's community based, people will get on board more, just like how we have Act 148 for recycling and composting, it will just help enhance those missions that we have and keep us compliant with that along the way. So that was a big thing. And just getting outreach to getting reached out to by businesses, they have all this plastic film, and they don't know what to do with it. They're not big enough to have a waste hauler come and pick it up themselves because it just wouldn't be cost efficient for the waste hauler. So for us, we'll do a mini scale hauling service to pick up all of that waste. And what we're going to be doing with it is partnering with treks that makes the plastic type of park benches, and also the patio furniture to and the flooring. And with them, as we reach a certain amount of plastic film that we give them, we also get a park bench. So with those park benches, we're going to be connecting with the local parks and giving them the benches. So although it's not going to be our plastic film recycled into the benches, it's just again, a nice community circle that's going around. So like we're generating the waste, we're recycling it, but then it's coming back to the community. Now this doesn't mean that we should produce more plastic film, it just means we're trying to find solutions to the systems that were within that unfortunately produce a lot of single use waste. So you're trying, I think, to raise not only interests, but funds to be able to do this project. Is that right? Correct. Yes. So we work individually with businesses, and that's a straight point of contact. But with a community shared system, it's multiple different organizations getting together, and you don't necessarily have a direct client with it, nor does one size fit all. So with the community shared systems, the whole point is to make it accessible and inclusive. So it will be sliding scale subscription bases, also based on how much waste that you are producing. We don't want a small business having to pay to play, because that's what's happening within the sustainability movement. If you want your business to be sustainable, you have to pay more to do so. And we don't want that to be a barrier into participating in sustainability based stuff. The unfortunate thing with creating a system like that, that it takes additional funding because in reality, it's not a big money maker. And we're a small business, and we're donating a lot of our time right now to create that system. But we're at a point where we need extra assistance to make it possible. So becoming a founding sponsor, we're looking at it as events. Businesses can sponsor events to be having exposure there and some other things along with it. So with the classic film, we're asking for sponsorship and they're get exposure on like the waste hauling vehicle that we do on all the different socials. But they'll also be included in all of our meetings get full transparency on where the funding is going. It's not like we're going to be hiding anything. Like this is for the community. Like we're building it for the community. We want to make it self-sustaining. And to do that, we need some outside funding to make it happen. And how much money are you trying to raise as of August 2021? Yes. So our initial goal is $20,000, which will help get the pilot program off the ground, running smoothly. And then from there, we'll be able to start getting additional funding through grants. So once we have like that system running, then we're more open to receiving, hopefully government funding and grants outsourced. But since we're still in the beginning stage, we're asking for the community to help us out. And have you had gotten some interest from some of the larger sustainability businesses? Yes, it's been really amazing. We've been having multiple calls throughout the weeks and it just got launched, I believe, was it two weeks ago? Maybe a week ago, thanks to VBSR, Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility. We're a proud member of them. And they partnered up with us to be our exposure sponsor. And through their PRs and it getting reshared, we've been having calls with people and we should be getting closer to our goal each day. And we're hoping for the pilot to start on October 1st. Are you pursuing some legislative avenues also to include recovery of plastic film from the waste stream as part of the way government requires us to operate? Yes. So I am joining, actually my first meeting with VBSR, I'm joining their policy committee, because I am happy that we have a law like Act 148, the universal recycling and composting law. But I feel like there's a lot of room for improvement to hold businesses more accountable. But in order to do that, like we have to create the systems for them to be able to do it successfully to comply. And right now, we had the composting law happen last year, and businesses didn't know what to do. And we've been helping guide them. And now especially with restaurants, compostable products are no longer going to be accepted, starting January. And they are now like, Oh, what do we do? And there hasn't been much assistance, there's been some, but not enough, not to the capacity that they need. So again, that's where we're going to be doing more community assistance in that and during like town hall type of informative meetings. But yeah, definitely going to be more active within the laws and regulations and very stoked about that. And is the Chittenden Regional Solid Waste District helping you at all? Yes, so actually they reached out to us to help with the classic film recycling program. So it's been trying to happen for the better part of the last decade. And the reason why it hasn't been self sufficient is because so many people are working on together, it wasn't anyone's like baby per se. So now like we're stepping in to help with that, like working with all the stakeholders that have been a part of it for the past couple of years. But taking the stress off them because you have people from city markets, ski rack on logic that have their own full time jobs, including CSWD. And it's just harder to get things done that way. So we're really honored that they reached out to us. And we can't wait to get this going because it's just going to be the first step we have in our two year timeline to hopefully be setting up a reusable takeout system. Well, Marina, you certainly are an agent of change. Do you do all this by yourself or do you work with a team of people? I work with a team. Yeah, so I have Alexandra Thompson. She is my sustainably programming manager. She is absolutely amazing. She's been by my side for the past two years. And we actually have about four part-time employees now. I just hired two more to help with research and development. So we're growing and the need for us is growing. And yeah, we really look forward to the future. Well, I'm just very honored to talk to you and excited to hear about your work and about the project to reduce plastic film from the local waste stream. So thank you, Marina McCoy, so much for joining us. And we'll stay tuned to your efforts and hopefully talk to you in a few months. Thank you. Thank you for having me, Lauren. This is great. Absolutely.