Latest / EnvironMental with Dandelion / How Clean Something For Nothing Removed 910,000kg of Trash | EnvironMental Podcast
Transcript
- Aub Wallace: Do you think we're ready? You're César - CSFN: Yeah, Aub Wallace: Guys, we've talked about this. When it comes to trash, away doesn't actually mean away. It just means out of sight, out of mind for you. But it is very much insight for the planet. You know what else is insight or in the eye of the beholder as they say, is beauty. And watching someone throw their McDonald's trash out the window of their car is the number one way to infuriate me. mean, like chase you down the road, infuriate me. And not just because it's bad for the planet, even though it is, but let's be real. Litter is ugly. So ugly. While you're doing your best to choose plastic free, recyclable and biodegradable. please don't forget the number one golden rule. Leave no trace. Because whether it's accidental or not, there are people out there who legitimately don't give a damn. And those of us who do give a damn are often left wondering, is picking up one bottle or one cigarette butt even doing anything? What happens when one bottle turns into nearly a million kilos of impact? That's what we're talking about today on environmental with dandelions If this is your first time tuning in, hi, hello, I'm Aub, your host and the chief cultivator here at Dandelion. We are the comms people behind the brands helping people and planet work better together. And you, well, you're the eco-curious baddie who has been called an alarmist hippie your whole life. And now that the world is literally burning, the I told you so doesn't. feel like the flex we thought it would be. It just feels like a lot of heavy lifting. Now, before I introduce my guest for today, Tap the thumbs up button like it's a receipt that just got blown away by the wind and you're chasing it down the street at full sprint because you refuse to let your paper trail end up in the gutter. Got it? Good. Let's go. My guest today is someone who turned a simple act of doing something, just doing something into a global movement of untrashing. Since 2018, he has been empowering people to reclaim the beauty of our planet. His community has already logged over 7,300 cleanups across 84 countries. That is more than 883,000 kilos of trash removed from nature by people who decided that away wasn't good enough. He's the founder of Clean Something for Nothing. Please welcome Cesar Gonzalez Fernandez to Environmental Dandelion. Cesar, could you please tell our audience the number one thing you think they should know about the wild trash problem? César - CSFN: Yeah, thank you so much, Op. Thank you so much for the invitation and for having me here. I would like to start by saying a fact. You know how many cigarette butts end up on the floor every second? Well, 114,000 cigarette butts. Aub Wallace: 114,000? César - CSFN: Yeah, every second. one, two, three, there's 114,000 thrown on the floor and it's about 8 million a minute. And I would like to say that a litter is an issue. We all face it in all the countries in more or less importance, but it's there. although it became in a way normalized to flick a cigarette for those who smoke, we see it in the movies, we see it in many places. It doesn't mean it's normal and we are here to try to do two things, act and raise awareness. And I would like to say, of course, that Clean Something for Nothing is an app that connects people to clean the planet one bag of trash at a time. And our vision is a litter free planet, in a conscious and collaborative society. We rather act instead of complain. We focus our energy on doing things. Because it's not because we don't complain sometimes, it's because If we take our energy too much out for the negative aspects, that's stopping us from pursuing our goal, which is more positive oriented towards action. And then first time you do a cleanup, many things click on your head and then you become aware, maybe more mindful about consumption and you self care about the planet that surrounds you. Aub Wallace: incredible. How many people would you say like with your app have their first cleanups? César - CSFN: So we have a few thousands of users that having said that, we are still a very niche community. If you think about your circle of people, I'm not sure how many of them pick up litter in a basis. That's first ⁓ And second one, among those, how many decide to use a mobile app to level up their game, to track, to share, and to celebrate cleanups? So I would say only a few thousands, but... Aub Wallace: Hmm. Yeah. César - CSFN: That doesn't mean only that means ⁓ we are still a small community, but even worldwide, if you look for the hashtag litter picking or blogging, is ⁓ kind of a famous sport combining jogging and picking up trash coming from Sweden, you won't see so many posts across the globe, but it's getting, it's getting bigger. And that's what makes me, makes me super happy to see that it's something becoming a bit more normalized. You go for a picnic and then finish the picnic, grab a bag and you pick up your stuff and also the stuff that you see around. It's just five minutes, 10 minutes of your time. And this is happening more and more. I see people now walking their dog, grabbing always a bag and doing a bit here and there. And that's where we want to be, right? Ready for those who want to level up their game and think of clean something for nothing. Aub Wallace: That's really cool. ⁓ So way back when ⁓ I wanted to ⁓ have cleanups ⁓ regularly ⁓ with my friends I to like make cleanup possible, but. I'm an expat in my community and I don't know very many people. So I was kind of wondering if the Clean Something for Nothing app would make it easier for me to either join a cleanup that's gonna happen ⁓ or create one with in my neighborhood that might be interested in. César - CSFN: I think so, yeah. Actually in the Clean Something For Nothing app, you have a map, that's a worldwide map, which displays all the cleanups that have been posted in the app. That means all our data is fully available for anyone. Anyone can look at any cleanup because it's all there and we don't sell the data to nobody. So you could, as easy as this, you could go to the map, look on your neighborhood. And already see if there is any cleanup there. And if there is, you can open the cleanup and see who did it. And normally when you enter in the, in the profile of the person, you can also see that Instagram profile if they have, and it's as easy as tapping their Instagram and then you can chat via Instagram and you can easily meet people over there. Yeah. You also have groups inside the app, meaning I'm not sure if you use Facebook, but Aub Wallace: Hmm. ⁓ César - CSFN: In Facebook, there is this group feature, which is used to be super popular or similar to that. can create your own group. For instance, exactly within the cleanup app. And then other people can join your group and you approve them. And then you are a squad ready to clean your neighborhood. And whatever you do, either, you clean solo or as a group, you just tag the group. And by tagging the group. Aub Wallace: within the cleanup app. César - CSFN: the kilos collected either by you, by your peers, or altogether, they will be dedicated to the group. And the group is like a big umbrella that is capturing all the impact from its members. Maybe I can tell ⁓ long short, how it all started. ⁓ let's say it was 2018, right? ⁓ I started to pick up trash. Because it bothered me one day it bothered me. It was like that as random as this. ⁓ I decided to do something. I saw it and I went to pick up a bag of trash and start to fill it in 10 minutes of my time. Aub Wallace: Yeah. César - CSFN: I think it was, I realized I did a big impact because I saw the place much better than before. And I enjoyed it for me and for my dog. I was walking my dog at the time. And I said, look, this looks way better now. Maybe my mom will notice. All the neighbors will notice when they walk back home, they will be, ⁓ nice. This is looking great. And I said, okay, in a way with 10 minutes of my time, I created value. Value, we think value as a money, but it's not only money value. Aub Wallace: Mmm. Mm-hmm. César - CSFN: So I said, look, what if each of us does small things like this? We could clean up the whole mess in a matter of, you know, and then, and then the thing started to escalate. ⁓ I thought to create an Instagram account, clean something for nothing, just as a way to call to action for others to do the same. And I was, I was traveling and everywhere I would, ⁓ Aub Wallace: Yeah. César - CSFN: I would travel with my campervans. ⁓ would before taking my ⁓ table outside to cook or whatever, I would clean area for me, but others coming after me. And every photo you could see was a thumb down and a bag of trash holding in the Instagram. And now yes, long story short, the hashtag pass from zero post. Aub Wallace: Yeah. César - CSFN: to 17,000 posts using clean something for nothing hashtag. That mean more people were doing that even before me, of course, many other people, but it was kind of a growing movement supporting one another because that's the beauty of when you enter into this environment of litter pickers, you'll discover how many amazing people you meet. And it's not because I'm part of this global big communities, it's genuine. You see the beauty of Aub Wallace: Yeah. César - CSFN: You know, you open the app and then you see people from Japan and then another from Uganda Africa and then another from the US and you are like well These people are all doing their bit in their own region All of us protecting Mother Nature and probably each one of us has such a different realities different religions and political beliefs, whatever Aub Wallace: Mmm. César - CSFN: But we realized there is many more things uniting us than dividing us. And I think that's also a beauty included in these kind of actions. after this creating this Instagram account and getting a bit nice use by 17,000 posts, my friend Lester and myself created the mobile app to understand this impact. To know, okay, How many bags are we collecting? How many and countries Aub Wallace: Mm-hmm. César - CSFN: And after many apps, ⁓ because said, maybe we don't need to invent the wheel. Maybe there is an existing nice solution already that we could choose. It wasn't the case. We saw big, big app for improvement and we created the app. ⁓ It's app clean something for nothing is here to track, to share, and to celebrate cleanups as simple as this. ⁓ Yeah. And today, yeah, thank you. And today we have. Aub Wallace: Yep. Mmm. It's amazing. César - CSFN: You mentioned some data, but now it has grown in the last weeks. So we have over 910,000 kilograms of trash and more than 8,000 cleanups already posted in 84 countries. So yeah, we are super proud to see the... Aub Wallace: Wow. Wait, so you, hold on. I wanna make something really clear for the audience because you sent me that information a week ago. so within a week there has been several hundred cleanups and several hundred thousand kilos of trash collected. That's amazing. César - CSFN: Amen. Yeah. It is. Yeah. The people behind is the gems of all of this. It's every individual with a small or bigger cleanup. Doesn't matter. It what makes this magic happening. Aub Wallace: it's time. But before I ask my favorite question, I want to remind you, the beautiful eco-curious wizard, that as a super small time creator, your subscribe makes a huge difference Just like Cesar is people powering Clean something for nothing, I'm people powering this channel. So you could help me out a lot by hitting the subscribe button or even just the little thumbs up button. So now, ⁓ what ⁓ is your in transition to a more sustainable future? César - CSFN: Well, important question. I do my part, I guess. I don't expect to be perfect. I am not far from perfect, definitely. But... I believe so much in the power of every single action. never, never those, one of those who think, ⁓ it's not going to matter because anyway, China is polluting a lot or these kinds of statements. I genuinely believe it's, I think it's not a belief. It's a fact, whether you want to see it or not. It's a fact. are over 8 billion people in the planet. We all have decision power in more or less. Aub Wallace: Mm. César - CSFN: extent, but we have choices you know that if each one of us, according to a German if each one of us collected 2.2 kilos in a year of trash, there wouldn't be more trash in the whole planet, wild trash. Just to say, look, ⁓ it's, yeah, ⁓ just Aub Wallace: I believe that. César - CSFN: Just to give you the, I asked some students sometimes when I go to schools to spread the word, I ask this question and they always say normally much bigger numbers, but it's just 2.2 kilos. there is a pink. ⁓ Yeah, correct. Aub Wallace: But this is everybody on the planet, right? Okay. Because I'm thinking like, I'm very privileged to live in the Netherlands where there isn't very much like trash. I took myself on a cleanup and literally had to go far away to get an entire trash bag of, and I'm very lucky for that. of this country is really clean. César - CSFN: What about in the Netherlands, are you? Aub Wallace: I live right outside of Eindhoven. I think if I go over to Eindhoven and like go to some of down some of the streets there, I would probably be able to places where there's trash. I do know where there's a place where people throw their McDonald's bags and I have chased them down the street actually. ⁓ But yeah, ⁓ it's, we're lucky it's like something that littering isn't. isn't as common here. But when I lived in the States, that's totally a different situation, right? César - CSFN: Okay. mean, ⁓ I, interesting because I just went to look at the app, how many cleanups we have in the Netherlands and we have over 500 cleanups done in the Netherlands ⁓ ⁓ because also Luxembourg where am living for the seven years, it's ⁓ really clean. If you go the streets, you hardly see much Aub Wallace: Incredible. Mm-hmm. César - CSFN: But that is also in part because people is more aware. agree. Absolutely. But in the other side, when you look at all the millions spent by the government to keep it clean, that's also important. They have so many people working in the city cleaning daily. Yeah. And that also makes a difference. So I agree. And the solution needs to be. ⁓ Aub Wallace: Mm-hmm. Yeah. César - CSFN: involved in all the stakeholders, not only citizen or civic action, but policymaking, companies as well, schools, kindergartens, and all of this. It's a global issue and we all need to play our role. And all together, we will make it leader free. Absolutely. Aub Wallace: Mm-hmm. Definitely. Where would you say is like the place that people do the most picking? In my mind, I'm like, I'm gonna guess beach, but ⁓ because water brings up trash and leaves it. But am I wrong? Is there a place where there's more? César - CSFN: Yeah, it's always bringing it. I guess, I don't know to answer this question because it really depends on the country, the city. You mentioned before McDonald's, Burger King. Those places often are surrounded by litter for some reason. I don't know why, but yes. I even have been told by a municipality here in Luxembourg that they had to employ one more person ever since Burger King opened. the municipality. ⁓ Bus ideal for litter picking. Cigarette butts, of course. Aub Wallace: ⁓ yeah. César - CSFN: But sometimes you wouldn't expect to find such hotspots of litter and then you are like, wow, what is this? I remember collecting over a hundred kilos of trash near a petrol station once and it was hidden in the bushes. And you would think at first, ⁓ this is so clean. There's nothing to do here. And then once you look behind the fence where nobody looks, then it's like, wow. Yeah. Aub Wallace: Hmm. Yeah. ⁓ look behind fellow trash pickers, look behind the fences. César - CSFN: So really nice. Yeah, I'm bushes. Aub Wallace: And bushes, yeah. Man, that's, mean, because we, you mentioned that you started on a dog walk and yeah, that's, my husband and I are always, we use our little dog bags if we're, if we find trash, ⁓ because yeah, ⁓ it's ugly. It's not nice. It's not nice to be walking in the world then there's trash. It feels like. I don't know, it feels dirtier than just dirt. Does that make sense? César - CSFN: Yeah, agree. It's lack ⁓ of... Yeah, I don't know how to explain it, but definitely when you do clean it up and when you keep it clean, you incentivize this citizen stewardship, meaning you love more the place where you live, the place where you're happy, you protect it, you don't want to damage it. And it's out of, at the end it's out of common sense that you will not litter, especially when you first pick up your first pieces of trash, you see litter differently, I think. Most of the people do at least. Aub Wallace: Maybe care. Mmm. Mm-hmm. César - CSFN: They see it literally as, ⁓ no, they shouldn't be here. It's annoying me. pick it up. then my, my, my, my problem now it's I, cannot stop looking at leader no matter where I am. I just cannot avoid it. And yeah, it's like a reflex reflect. yeah. I mean, the reason why we created this app Aub Wallace: you Yeah. César - CSFN: was 2020 when we started, you know, after the pandemic, talking with, with the groups from Germany, from Spain to understand what do they need? What is the tool they need to keep up with their, with their cleanups to keep track? Uh, yeah. And, and, and thanks to especially lesser. Aub Wallace: Mm. César - CSFN: We made it possible to have today what we have, all self-funded. We have never raised any money and we are not for profit organization based in Luxembourg since officially, right, on the paper since January, 2024. Yeah. Aub Wallace: Okay, and I read on your site that you do take donations and that you plant a tree for every kilo. César - CSFN: Correct. As a not-for-profit, we are taking donations, which are also tax deductible in Luxembourg, both for citizens or companies. The three thing, it's called Pick and Plant It's a program we created especially for companies who want to, instead of just donate, they want to give money for an impact that they can see. because those who do litter picking, they never do it for money. They do it for the impact. And we thought if we could give double the impact that people is already doing with kilos of trash collected by matching every kilo with one tree, then we came with the program pick and plant. And companies make this possible by funding trees and per every tree funded. Aub Wallace: Yeah. Mm-hmm. César - CSFN: We attach one kilo of trash collected and everybody's accountable, both the company and the users. They know this is happening. We provide satellite data and all life expectancy of every tree that we plant only native species. We try to do this very well. Yeah. And those are the two things we also do team building with companies often in Luxembourg and with municipalities. have a dedicated program. Aub Wallace: Mm-hmm. César - CSFN: for municipalities to activate their citizens to be part of the solution and not the pollution by using the app in two ways. in one way they can, of course, do cleanups. We have already talked about that. But the other thing you can do when you are part of a municipality program, as a citizen, you can also simply alert of big piles of trash that you can. Aub Wallace: Mmm. César - CSFN: And yeah, we have developed a whole thing that communicates directly citizen with the municipality. Yeah, for a liter free commune. We collected some hundreds of kilos as a municipality and they started to involve the kindergarten. the kids as well, that are, ⁓ and they love They really love to do these actions. They learn about because also we separate trash when they, pick them and they learn. ⁓ Aub Wallace: Amazing. César - CSFN: what goes in this bag, what goes in the other bag. They are very active and they love to chase the trash. And I find it's a really amazing initiative because if they are raised correctly, they will act less likely to commit any mistakes in the future, Aub Wallace: Yeah. Yeah, cool. How, like if I wanted to get my haminta, my municipality as part of clean something for nothing, would I just connect you? Do I just like march over to the haminta and say, excuse me, I have an idea for you? Like they don't like it when I do that, but I will, I have. César - CSFN: Yeah. Up to you. Yeah. As long as, as long as we can sit with them, tell them, I mean, all the influence in our website, of course, but if we can get to a conversation with them to explain what is here for them to be, you know, to be part of this. Yeah, it's quite straightforward. have a setup phase when we create the profile of the commune inside the app. We explain them how it works, the workflow, and then it's just ⁓ launching it and communicating because if citizens do not know about it, they will not use it, of course, right? But it's quite straightforward, yeah. Aub Wallace: Mm-hmm. Okay, well, I wanna do that. so a lot the times on this channel, I talk about actions that people can take today that will make a difference Usually it's like, you know, from the personal to the political. And I feel like you're kind of running the whole gamut. You can do... ⁓ César - CSFN: Yeah Aub Wallace: the clean up yourself, you can alert your municipality, you can get a group together to support this initiative, you could add education for young people So I really feel like Clean Something for Nothing is this episode's like what you could do. from the personal to the political to help clean up the world around you. And I think that's incredible. I appreciate what you're building. I appreciate that you're taking the time to understand all of the things that people need in order to make a difference here. César - CSFN: Thank you so much, essentially thank you so much also for being a microphone for us and giving us voice because of course we need to get across the public and having a chance to explain what we do, who we are. It's really, really important for the whole community and the project. And yeah, it's thanks to citizens that this happened. And I believe bottom up is the right way. Aub Wallace: Mmm. Yeah. César - CSFN: to achieve real changes when it comes from grassroots, from the citizens, it's much better than when it's a politician telling you what to do or what not to do. And I think it's the most common sense, right? It's transversal. It should be transversal. In my opinion, this is me talking. I don't talk for my community, never, but in my opinion, I think some things related to the environment, also climate change. Aub Wallace: Beautiful. Mm-hmm. Yeah. César - CSFN: X, Y, you you name it. Some of these things should be transversal to politics. They should be in all the political parties implemented. We have only one planet. And what we do is things out of common sense and civic behavior. It's yeah. So that's why also we are very welcoming with any kind of profile in our cleanups in Luxembourg. We do always every month. Aub Wallace: Mm-hmm. César - CSFN: We have refugees, asylum seekers, we have techie guys, people working in finance. elderly, ⁓ have ⁓ rugby clubs, from our work, world of life ⁓ can join meet and, you know, and do good things for their own environment. ⁓ Aub Wallace: Incredible. is that your storytelling secret? Is that the people in your community are sharing this information and sharing it with their communities and that's really what's growing? César - CSFN: Yeah, I guess we are just ⁓ an enabler. And hopefully, hopefully we are a showroom also for those groups where they could go and look, look, this is my profile. Look at all the impact we've done together as a group, as a cleanup group. You can verify it all through because you have all the photos, stamps, ⁓ ⁓ dates, it's all there. And they can also go to their municipalities and maybe help. Aub Wallace: Mmm. César - CSFN: change policy with this data Aub Wallace: Oh my goodness. I love Clean Something for Nothing. But before we go, how can people find you? how do they reach out to you? How do they get the app? César - CSFN: Yeah, they can find us almost in all social media channels. They just have to type CSFN or the long version, clean something for nothing. Both will work. I would really strongly suggest them to download the app. They just need to type CSFN four letters. ⁓ CSFN. And they will jump on the, on the app. It's available in English, ⁓ French and Spanish. And they will find out once they are in the app, they will find out the community. They will, they will get on the journey. And of course, please feel free to share the word. and let's clean something for nothing together. Aub Wallace: Beautiful. Thank you so much for the work you're doing. And thank you for coming on the show. And I really appreciate you for being here This is really, really, really cool. César - CSFN: My pleasure. Really, thank you. Thank you so much. Aub Wallace: Thanks. And if you would like to see more environmental on YouTube, please check out the food security update I did earlier this month. I'll put that on the screen right now next to a circle with me in it that makes it really easy for you to subscribe to the channel. And I will see you next time. Bye. César - CSFN: Bye!