The White Diaries
Inspiring Individuals: Cathy Mears-Martin – Sustainability Guru
Last week Thursday 22 April marked the 51st anniversary of Earth Day, and I am therefore delighted to feature my friend Cathy Mears-Martin, who is a passionate environmentalist, as my latest interviewee in my Inspiring Individuals series. Cathy and I met through Instagram and was wonderful to get the chance to meet up in person before lockdown took over our lives. Cathy left a successful career in advertising in 2019 to focus on her passion as an environmental campaigner. She has created a really excellent blog Simply Sustainable Ideas and is an ambassador for Keep Britain Tidy Ambassador and an Environmenstrual Ambassador for the Women’s Environmental Network. And in her quest to share her passion more widely she has just published a brilliant series of children’s books, the Eco Protection Squad (the Kindle version launched on Amazon last Thursday on Earth Day).
WD: Firstly, congrats on the launch of the book series, but before we get to that in more detail, can you tell us how your passion for working towards a cleaner planet began? And what made you leave your job to focus on it full-time?
CMM: Thank you Sangeeta. First, I would like to say I can’t believe we have known each other for over a year and how great to see how social media can really help build communities of like-minded people and help form real life friendships.
After travelling in Asia in 2016, I became more aware of single use waste. My first litter pick was at a waterfall in Cambodia and on the way back I paid more attention to the people burning rubbish on the side of the road because they did not have a rubbish collection system set up. When I returned to the UK, I began to research littering, recycling, and waste collection. We are in a country where we have systems in place to sort materials or pick up our waste. And yet I had never paid attention to what happened to it. I realised solutions included better education, awareness and understanding of product lifecycle and more circular economy and reusables vs single use. It essentially led me to a low waste lifestyle. I started an Instagram account about this to share tips with friends and family and a wider community started following me too. My approach has always been to educate and share options we have so you can make an informed decision. As a historian, I love facts and seeing how the past can influence our future for learning. So I include some fun, interesting, historical, and hopefully impactful facts about the topics discussed.
At the same time I was working as a project manager in advertising. When I was younger, I had set my personal work target to be earning a certain figure and being at a particular level for me to feel successful. As I hit my targets, I kept increasing them, and progressed to the level of Programme Director. But my work satisfaction started to change drastically in 2018 onwards. I began taking a step back from overall consumerism and over consumption…My favourite part of work was being co-head of the Green Team and creating challenges to get the company involved. I was struggling with aligning my home and life beliefs and knew I had to make a change as it wasn’t sustainable for me. I was working insanely long hours doing a job I no longer believed in. It wasn’t fair on me or the company I was working for. After a weekend at a family friends birthday weekend, I talked my thoughts out with my family and realised I needed to quit. I wasn’t happy working in an industry promoting buying the latest model and wanted to give myself a chance working in a job for a company that I knew cared for the environment and the future of our planet and race. So I quit. It was a hard decision but I felt as if a weight was lifted off my shoulders!
WD: I was attracted to your blog and Instagram posts as you approach the topic in a very grounded way, acknowledging that most people want to change how they live, but at times it can be overwhelming to know how to start and the information is not always that readily available. Can you explain the ethos of your blog? And what are your tips for people trying to change their daily habits.
CMM: My first piece of advice is to be easy on yourself and don’t get despondent with green guilt’. There is no such thing as being perfectly zero waste – everything we do has an impact. We just have to decide what that impact is. It can be positive, neutral or negative. The biggest thing I suggest though is taking responsibility for your actions, choices and ultimately your waste. You can make a difference and if you are not happy with a company sending you lots of plastic wrapping…tell that company. Petition the government, use your vote, speak up, talk about it with friends and family. We need to make a fuss that it isn’t normal or acceptable and companies must make changes to their production and care about the end of life of their products.
When swapping to a lower waste lifestyle, start small. Every single swap you make has an impact and it takes over a month for new habits to form. Start with a room – the kitchen or the bathroom for example – and slowly make changes there. For example, swapping out your shower gel for soaps or reusable body wash. Reusable cotton wipes, even the toilet paper you use. Remember though, the most sustainable item is the one you didn’t have to buy. So always see what you can reuse from your house. For example, those old towels you have lying around…they are great if you cut them up for cleaning rags / to replace paper towels.
We work hard for our money, so I would always suggest looking at the ethics and ethos of a company you purchase from – your money is your power so use it well and try support those companies or small businesses making a difference where you can. If this helps, my first swaps were my menstrual cup, shopping and produce bags, soaps, a reusable bottle and cup, cotton wipes to put toner on each morning, toilet paper and toothpaste tablets.
My later swaps include making more homemade food and packing lunch vs buying, choosing products based on their packaging (ideally loose and free or refillable), making my own cleaning products, repairing items and shopping second hand and even using a portable bidet (which I LOVE and recommend to everyone!) Even now, I am still making swaps at home. Not everyone in my household is on the same journey and that is ok. Overall, as a family we are still producing a lot less waste as a result. Plus, I petition my local MP on a regular basis to make changes, which is definitely something I recommend doing!
WD: Very helpful tips, thank you. And can you tell us more about your work with Keep Britain Tidy and litter-picking. A growing global movement, which as we have discussed before, I still find hard to fathom needs to be done. Why do people litter in the first place? I think the topic of a whole other post!
CMM: Completely agree with you – I could talk for hours about littering, recycling and Keep Britain Tidy a charity which I love so much so that I jumped at the opportunity to do a part time recycling role for them, and I had so much work satisfaction from it. I would basically talk to people about making changes to their recycling habits and found that a few people genuinely didn’t know what they were doing was contaminating the recycling load. Plastic bags would be added, food and drink, and even used nappies!
Keep Britain Tidy also work on some fantastic and insightful reports about consumer behaviours and why people may do things. Take recycling for example – some of the worst recyclers are those committed to recycling because they believe they know the rules and don’t update their knowledge. And in the UK recycling rules vary quite a bit from borough to borough or council to council. In Test Valley you can’t recycle yoghurt pots or clear plastic trays but in Southwark in London, you can recycle both of those PLUS there is a food composting scheme. And if you add to that packaging labels and the vast amount of different materials – there are 7 different classes of plastics – well, it doesn’t make it easy to understand.
Keep Britain Tidy also does some fascinating studies and work on littering. About 48% of people have admitted to littering which seems incredibly high. If you understand that littering also includes cigarette butts and chewing gum…well, that figure may make a bit more sense, despite how bad both those items are for us and the environment. Their Great British Spring Clean is going to kick off – from 23rd May – 13th June – and they are asking people to pledge to clean miles. Check out and sign up to their #MillionMileMission. If you are out on a walk, why not incorporate a litter pick and help keep your local area clean?
I know from experience that some people are under the impression that someone else will clean up after me. But it isn’t anyone else’s job to tidy up after the mess you make. You brought it, you take it – it is your responsibility as a person living on this planet to be mindful of your impact. You wouldn’t leave the rubbish in your living room – why are you leaving it in a public space. Have fun, enjoy a cheeky tinny in the park, just be respectful to those around you and keep spaces tidy for others.
Another thing to consider about rubbish and littering – have you ever been to a park with filled up bins and just tried to squeeze your ice cream wrapper in the edge? Well, what if the wind picks up? In your mind, it may be in a bin but in reality, it will float off in the breeze. What about those moments when it is a bit breezy and you take something out of your pocket or bag and an old receipt breaks loose? It isn’t as simple as saying everyone knowingly litters. Sometimes it is an accident. The majority of the time though I would say it was deliberate. So we need to raise awareness, build community spirit and help educate why we should all work together on reducing our waste and not littering.
WD: In my previous interview with Ocean Advocate Emily Penn, I touched on the idea of ‘sustainability work fatigue’ and frustration at the challenges you face. How do you deal with this?
CMM: Emily Penn is incredible. I was lucky enough to experience a couple of her events in London and have so much admiration for her. Yes, it is completely possible to experience this as it can be overwhelming, thinking about everything that needs to be done for humans to exist in the future. For them to experience the same wonders we are. That may sound fanciful and idealistic but at the end of the day, the planet doesn’t need us to survive. We need the planet.
A lot of litter pickers will mention their frustrations when they clear up an area only to return and for it to be messy again. I have a lot of respect for community and solo litter pickers, and litter pick myself. Sometimes you can make it fun and find some interesting or old items, even money. But most of the time it is the same rubbish, different day.
Honestly, when the thoughts spiral out of control, or I start to get depressed or tired about repeating the same message, I just remember that I have the luxury of time to research this. Not everyone does. I also focus on the wins, no matter how small. Even if it is one person making a positive comment or hearing a friend has made a sustainable swap. I focus on those wins, and I channel the frustrations to find new ways to reach other people.
WD : And now to the book series. I was so excited when you shared the initial concept with me and am still in awe of your creative genius coming up with this brilliant concept. Can you explain where the idea came from and tell us more about the Eco Protection Squad and the Eco Squashers.
CMM: Thank you, that’s so kind of you to say. I am so thankful you enjoyed it once you saw some of the initial ideas for the story too. I was so nervous sharing outside my family. This is my eco baby for sure. I had quit my job in December 2019 and was in America visiting my husband for a month before returning to real life and looking for a job. I was chatting to my mother-in-law about struggling to find a bigger way to appeal to more people and educate them about swaps and changes. I had realised that many people wanted to live more sustainability but didn’t know what that meant or how to go about it. And I was in a sustainable bubble – listening to people who were sharing similar tips I was in different ways. My MiL works with autistic children and mentioned how they have emotions characterised to help them understand their feelings and how to then manage them. It was a total EURIKA moment, and I started characterising the issues surrounding waste.
Welcome Single-Use Sally, the first character I created, followed by Danny Do Gooder and Plastic-free Prival. It took a while to come up with the team names and some of the other characters. And the likelihood is I will keep adding to the character list. But now I have an idea that makes it easier to understand the issues and presents them in a classic good vs bad adventure story. Think Paws Patrol meets Mr Men having tea with Captain Planet and Octonauts.
These characters follow me EVERYWHERE! And it was vital to me in creating my characters that I also present a diverse and inclusive team. Teamwork is important to help solve the climate crisis and everyone has their own set of special skills. I wanted people to love these characters and see ones that they can relate to. Meet the Eco Protection Squad. A team of super kids helping save Terra, Mother Earth, from Bill McGreedy and his band of Eco Squashers. The first adventure takes place in a park and tackles littering as well as recycling in a fun way. The second book will tackle what we flush down the loo.
It was important to me when creating my stories that I give back as well. I donate 100 copies of any story to the Eco Schools programme, 50p from every sale goes to a charity working to educate about the waste topic and 50p goes to Carbon Footprint projects. I also self-published the book because I wanted to control the supply chain to know I was supporting sustainable companies and no single use plastic is used! I visited the printing company to visually check their credentials for example.
I have to give a huge shout out to my mum – she is the one who has to pack and post any orders that go out! My mum is incredible, and I don’t know if I would have made this a success without her support and belief in these stories. My husband too. The person who sees my downs and my highs, my partner and confidant when things are tough or I need to talk out ideas and new approaches. He is my guinea pig haha!
WD: As you know at the heart of my Inspiring Individual series is reminding people of the concept Following your Bliss (as coined by Joseph Campbell). You are certainly doing this, but I would love to know what this means for you personally and why you think its important that people put passion and purpose in their work?
CMM: Great question. If you had asked me 2 years ago if I was following my passion, I would have said yea, of course. I’m good at what I do and I enjoy the role. But that isn’t passion. Now when people ask me I know what it means to be passionate about what I am doing. The fire in my belly when I wake up in the morning, hoping to make a difference to just 1 person. The drive to get up and focus my time and energy on something I believe in, something that I know will make a difference. The thought that if I had to stop doing this, I would be devastated. It motivates me. It invigorates me. I have a message to share so I need to get a wiggle on and share it!
In our current climate though, believe that I am fortunate enough to have the opportunity to follow my passion. Not everyone has that luxury, and that is something I am always aware of and remember. So I want to make sure I use the most of my luxury to make it matter.
WD: So what does the future hold for the Eco Protection Squad, and for you?
CMM: Hopefully it is a bright future! There are so many stories in the works and I want to make audio versions as well as animations in order to spread the message as far as possible and make it as accessible for kids to read / hear / watch. I want to get a copy of each book in every school in the UK, if not the world and create bespoke stories for countries.
I want to make a difference to our planet and leave it better than it was when I was born. I want to educate others about what we can do to save Terra, reduce waste and live better. To work together to build back better. To create businesses and homes and enjoy activities that think about the lifecycle of any products associated.
Most of all, I want a future for any children, grand children and future generations, to be able to experience the beauty this planet has. To value differences and to enjoy nature and wildlife. To appreciate how lucky we are. Terra Mater Est.
It was such a delight to interview Cathy – and its the longest piece posted in my Inspiring Individuals series, but I wanted to share all of her passion and ideas with you all so nothing has been edited or trimmed! I hope it helps you as you embark on your own sustainability journey and making wiser choices for the greater good of the planet and humanity.
Love Sangeeta x
Note: You can buy the paperback and eBook version of the Eco Protection Squad Go To The Park here or find it on kindle here or visit Cathy’s blog
What a brilliant post! A really great read and I’m sure it’ll get a lot of people thinking. Some of the figures truly shocked me, I’ll definitely be doing more reading into this and looking for new ways to get involved in actively promoting these charities, organisations, and groups!