THE‘more impressive example it was recorded seven years ago. The sea poured on the coasts in southern Thailand, in a channel near the border with Malaysia, one Balena with eighty envelopes in the stomach equal to eight kilos of weight. Over time, the plastic had prevented her from feeding. Weakened, he had continued to swim towards the coast and, at the end of the forces, he had slipped into a channel in the city of single, where he was found lifeless.
Another cetacean, a male, died in Indonesia a few years later, near the Wakatobi natural park, He had six kilos of plastic in his stomach. With the autopsy it was discovered that he had ingested more than a thousand pieces of plastic, including sea crooks, bottles, caps, cups, envelopes and bags of nylon, cutlery and straws, chip packages and even apparently innocent candies.
Images that Rebecca Prince-Ruiz, creator of the Plastic Free July international campaign, He would never want to see again. This Australian Environmental Tenace, in summer 2011, had asked children, colleagues and friends to eliminate the use of disposable plastic throughout the month of July. A challenge, a challenge, to see if they would have been good and conscientious.
Who are the changemakers, the paladins of change
In a short time he gave rise to a very powerful Global mass movement involving 326 million participants in 190 countries. And if it is true – as the United Nations Program for the Environment notes – which, By 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans it is easy to guess its flow.
174 million Changemaker in the world Rebecca Prince-Ruiz is a Changemakera champion of change, a sort of influencer of the environment, winner of numerous awards.
In the world like you are 174 million, of which 3 – it seems – in Italy. Its impact on plastics was so profound that the activist was also reported by United Nations with an SDG Action Awards.
It is a recognition that rewards collective actions that promote a change towards Sustainable development objectives of the United Nations Agenda 2030a program to eradicate poverty and protect the planet.
The Changemaker Rebecca Prince-Ruiz: “Every year at sea 19 million tons of waste”
Rebecca Prince-Ruiz, Australian Changemaker
«This year we celebrate the fifteenth year of activity, but honestly we hope we can stop. If this were the case, it would mean that this summer with the last round of the negotiations, after three years, to give life to the first global treatise on plastic pollution will have come.
Our movement has certainly contributed to a greater world awareness, “explains Da Perth, where he lives with his family. Meanwhile, the data that rattles off, although dramatic offer some glimmers of hope. Prince-Ruiz on the other side of the screen-we videohip when in Italy it is half past seven in the morning and in Australia on half and a half in the afternoon-lists them with an intense and reflective expression.
“Every year between The 19 and 23 million tons of plastic end up in the aquatic ecosystem polluting rivers, lakes and oceans” tells. «Practically the equivalent of a truck full of waste every minute. We all know that, once in the water, plastic does not biodegrades but fragments and is ingested by fish, birds and even by plankton, as studies reveal.
Last year, only with our movement, we avoided 290 million kilos of plastic».
Rebecca Prince-Ruiz: “We are all Changemaker”
A drop in the ocean, to put it with mother Teresa of Calcutta, But the ocean without that drop would be smaller.
«The fact is that We do not realize that the “culprits” are each time every time That we open an innocent disposable dose bought, for example, to the supermarket. “Small Steps, Big Difference” is our motto (small steps, big difference). We can all be “Changemaker”, promoters of change. The environmental crisis requires systemic solutions, but also the courage to make everyday choices aware that, then, they are an act of responsibility towards the planet and trust in the community “.
“Every year we receive five thousand nominations from all over the world from Changemaker who work for the 17 sustainable development objectives” underlines Marina Ponti, a global director of A SDG Action Campaign (action campaign for the United Nations sustainable development objectives).
«The award is symbolic, it is the confirmation of the individual action that can be transformative. Supporting Changemaker therefore means investing in a world where each individual has the power to make a difference, just as Rebecca shows ».
For the UN the health of the sea is enclosed in goal 14 which is called “Life underwater”. “It is part of the 17 sustainable development objectives and is strictly connected with others,” continues Ponti. «Protecting the life of the sea helps to achieve, for example, the goal 1 (zero poverty). The coastal communities depend on the oceans for their sustenance. Sustainable management of marine resources helps to reduce poverty.
Objective 14 also helps target 2 (zero hunger) and goal 3 (health and well -being). Sustainable fishing guarantees food safety and protects marine ecosystems. And the reduction of marine pollution improves human health. When a goal advances, everyone advances. Only united can we transform the world ».
Change is possible
For the first time there are also the United Nations at the 24th International Exhibition of the Milan Triennale entitled inequalities and dedicated to the theme of inequalities that characterize cities and the contemporary world. Until 9 November 2025 the United Nations Sdg Action Campaign proposes the art exhibition “Parallel reality”. It is an immersive journey from the reality of inequalities to hope, transformation and action.
In the section “Hope in action” is celebrated the power of change Through short videos of Changemakers who courageously show how they can face and reduce diversity: from the elimination of early marriages, to action for the environment and for gender justice, to name a few themes. In the center of the UN Spazio, the collages of the Turkish artist Uğur Gallenkuş.
They are works that show fractures in our societies and want to stimulate the transition from awareness to action against the gaps that are destabilizing humanity.
The fragments explore the clear fracture between privilege and oppression globally, intertwining the themes of economic and exclusion, climatic agaustice and lack of access to a healthy diet, as well as the gender difference in the dynamics of exclusion from societies. The journey to the pavilion ends with the invitation to act. By downloading the Unite New News app You can start your path of action.
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