Hot Girl Waste Walks - cleaning for climate & conservation

Hey guys! My name is Lily and I am a landscape architect practicing on Gadigal land in Sydney, Aus. I love our landscape, and the rich biodiversity that I'm part of, but I also feel scared about the lack of political and industry action being taken to get Australia (and the world) to net zero, whilst prioritising lower consumerism and greater conservation.

I will be honest, I started this month feeling a sense of doom about the state of our planet, but I've decided to take that frustration and helplessness and do something about it. If the people at the top aren't going to tell me I have to do the right thing, I'm just going to start doing it anyway and hopefully drag some others along with me :)

That's why I've decided that every day for a month (from Jan 21 to Feb 21) I am going to go for a walk and collect 2 full bags of rubbish of the streets. I'm bringing a glove, 2 compostable bags and a good podcast or a friend and I'm leaning into the weird looks I get. In doing this, not only am I reducing the amount of waste that ends up in a seabirds throat, I'm reducing the rate of our "one credit card a year" worth of microplastics in the soil, helping the local soil quality be free of chemical leachate and reducing the carbon and methane emissions caused by an underuse of our recycling facilities.

In my lga, we have soft plastic recycling and home waste recycling that I will be using through a company called recycle me, as well as a food and organics bin that reduces food waste and organic matter ending up rotting in landfill and contributing methane to our atmosphere!

Whilst this journey in and of itself feels like a small action I can take, I would love the support of likeminded community to help me raise money to donate to Greenfleet, the conservation charity I've chosen to donate all funds towards.

In their own words, "Greenfleet is an environmental not-for-profit organisation that has delivered climate action for over 25 years. We are Australia’s first carbon offset provider and protect our climate by restoring native forests.

Greenfleet plants native biodiverse forests in Australia and New Zealand to restore

nature and capture carbon emissions on behalf of our supporters.

As they grow, these forests help fight the impacts of climate change, improve soil and water quality, and restore habitat for native wildlife, including many endangered species.

Our partnerships with local communities and Traditional Owners support broad

benefits for the country and communities in which we live and work."

If just 300 people donated the cost of their morning iced latte, you'd be saving 300 plastic cups from recycling, reducing emissions by 10.5 kg, saving 78.3 kilowatt hours of energy (enough to power a 1000 watt appliance for 4ish days) and raising $1950 for conservation efforts, which means dedicating land, forest and habitat to conservation for future generations of animals (people included).

and that's if you gave $6.5...

Please give whatever you want, or message me to come join for a hot girl (gender non specific term) waste walk and let's do a little thing in this silly world to be greener and cleaner and plant trees for a hotter future.

Thankyou!