Here are some of the press highlights for 2019

Daily Mail

The Daily Mail were writing a piece about plastic ‘bags for life’, and the environmental impact they have. Since the 5p bag charge was introduced many retailers introduced the thicker plastic but many shoppers were treating these as they would single use bags, which can compound the problem of plastic waste. I shared my thoughts here.

Independent

Jessica was writing a story about plastic pollution in the beauty industry, and wanted some research or stats on the cosmetics industry. She also wanted my comment on the subject. Here’s what I had to say.

Daily Mail

As M&S launched a range of vegan clothing, Tom was looking at a range of vegan fabrics and materials that are now being used in the fashion industry. As many of them are made from plastics, he wanted to know my thoughts on the subject.

Refinery29

Refinery29 is the leading global media company focused on young women. After discovering from me, how tricky the beauty industry can be for producing waste, Refinery wrote an article on how to have an eco-friendly hair care routine.

Reclaim Magazine

Reclaim magazine celebrates antique, vintage, upcycled and eco interiors, property, products and lifestyle. When they heard I’d launched a course to help householders reduce their waste, they wanted to share it with their readers:

Evening Standard

Jessica was working on a piece about ‘how to make your beauty regime more sustainable’ for the Evening Standard and wanted some statistics/figures about waste generated by the beauty industry in the UK? You can read the article here.

Business Times

The Business Times wrote an article called “Zero Plastic Packaging Expected To Spur Growth In Beauty And Cosmetics Business This Year”. They quoted Zero Waste Week as one of their resources of information. More details here.

The Simple Things

The Simple Things is a monthly magazine focused on taking time to live well. They focus on slowing down and celebrating the idea that doing small things will make a difference. They invited me to write a regular column helping readers reduce their waste, which I started in May 2019.

Healthy Magazine

Healthy is the UK’s top-selling wellbeing magazine published by Holland & Barrett. Francesca was writing a feature on Zero Waste beauty and wanted my comment on how the beauty industry are contributing to the waste problem and some of the solutions they could implement.

RWM

RWM is the UK’s Largest Recycling & Waste Management Exhibition & Conference. Anna was invited to speak to local authorities, showing them how we could help engage their residents to reduce waste and recycle more. New for this year was a group of Ambassadors – Zero Waste Week are proud to have been invited to be the first one!

The Times special report

“The Future of Packaging” special report, published in The Times covered how sustainable packaging, and particularly the search for non-plastic alternatives, remains high on the agenda.  I was asked to provide commentary on the cosmetics industry and how they could make their packaging more sustainable. Full report available here.

Packaging Gateway

Packaging Gateway is designed for decision-makers in the packaging industry. Their website and magazine highlights the latest in industry projects and updates, along with the news, views and trends. An opinion piece was written on whether we could reduce plastic waste without increasing food waste. They cited research commissioned by Zero Waste Week in 2017.

Guardian

Paula was working on an article with her eight-year-old son in which he goes into school each day with a plastic-free lunchbox and wanted to include my ‘expert advice’. We had a long chat about making her own snacks (malt loaf, fruit leather, how to dry your own fruit), where to source zero waste bread (I even shared my home made tortilla wraps recipe) to the best sort of container. Here’s what she wrote.

Fund Ed

FundEd magazine sent to 8,000 schools across the UK. It is aimed at Headteachers, Business Managers and School Fundraisers. They asked to feature Zero Waste Week in their June issue to give schools a chance to prepare for the week.

Sky Ocean Rescue

Launched on 24th January 2017, Sky Ocean Rescue aims to shine a spotlight on the issues affecting ocean health, find innovative solutions to the problem of ocean plastics, and inspire people to make small everyday changes that collectively make a huge difference. In June, they nominated me as their #PassOnPlastic hero of the week

Our #PassOnPlastic hero of the week is… 🥁🥁🥁 @MyZeroWaste! Rachelle Strauss is the fabulous founder of ‘Zero Waste Week’, a campaign promoting recycling and waste reduction, which has now reached over 56 million people online! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/MwjJ8CECaF

— Sky Ocean Rescue (@SkyOceanRescue) June 13, 2019

Tumble Tots magazine

Marc contacted me for expert ideas for advising families with young children how they can cut down on their waste for Tumble Tots magazine. It was a wonderful opportunity to inspire the next generation! The magazine goes out to 20,000 members of Tumble Tots across the UK.

New Scientist

Leah is a reporter at New Scientist. She was writing a story on packaging-free grocery stores, their potential environmental impact, and whether they’re worth it. She asked me to share my perspective. You can access the piece here. [only available for subscribers]

 

---

Euromonitor report

Poor research can sometimes work in your favour! Throughout the year, a 2008 Euromonitor report about global beauty packaging trends got associated with Zero Waste Week. This led to the following pieces of free PR, erroneously quoting the research as ours – what’s not to love?!:

Grazia

Grazia is a popular women’s magazine. This article discusses products, hints and tips to make your bathroom plastic free – something David Attenborough would be proud of.

Covetuer

Coveteur was established in 2011 as a passion project to explore the homes and closets of global street style stars and influencers. This article highlights 16 all-natural beauty brands that can help you reduce your impact on the environment.

Cosmopolitan

Cosmpolitan magazine needs no introduction! They wrote an article about the Body Shop relaunching their recycle and refill scheme and cited ‘my’ report as an introduction to the topic of waste and sustainability.

Virgin Media Television

On the Virgin Media Xpose website, they challenged their readers to take the #NoBuy beauty challenge to help the environment, using ‘my’ research as a hook.

Forbes

Forbes is a global media company, focusing on business, investing, technology, entrepreneurship, leadership, and lifestyle. In this article, they discussed new ways the beauty industry is testing sustainable practices.

London Evening Standard

London’s award-winning newspaper highlighted some of the beauty brands that are helping us swap out single-use plastics by offering refils. They headed up the piece with the statistic about the amounts of packaging in the cosmetics industry. Read it here.