The plastics campaigner that changed the way we think about our oceans
Film producer and plastic pollution campaigner Jo Ruxton is sipping a cappuccino served by her on-board butler. “This is not my usual kind of trip,” admits Ruxton, who – happiest in a pair of fins and a weight belt – is skimming the Pacific as a guest lecturer on a luxury cruise along the Chilean coast, recruiting comrades in her ongoing battle against single-use plastics.
On Wednesday she accepted our award for Pioneer of the Year – voted for by Telegraph Travel readers – at the IBM iX everywoman in Travel awards, recognising the impact of her feature documentary A Plastic Ocean and the charity she founded, Plastic Oceans UK.
It has been a busy two years for the charity since the film’s release, with scientific research projects, conventions and a range of school materials high on the agenda. The recognition is very welcome.
“I am bowled over by the responses from governments all over the world,” Ruxton says, referencing the EU’s recent ban on single-use plastics. It’s the latest in a series of legislative rulings this year which, among other lifestyle changes, have led to a surge in people trading in their polystyrene cups for bamboo-fibre flasks.
Ruxton, 62, is good at marshalling the relevant facts. “In my lifetime plastic production has increased by 3,900 per cent per year. Last year it totalled 315 million tons, 8 million of which were deposited in the sea.”
The statistics have real weight for Ruxton who, through a lifetime spent diving – first as a marine conservation officer with WWF in Hong Kong, then as a producer for the BBC’s Natural History Unit – has plunged deeper into the sub-aquatic world than most and witnessed its gradual devastation first-hand.
It was while filming Blue Planet in the Nineties that Ruxton first felt compelled to take action. “We were diving along Spain’s southern coast,” she recalls. “You could see polytunnels in which people were growing the vegetables we’re then able to eat right through the year.
And quite often, when we were in the water filming, our legs would get tangled in huge swathes of plastic sheeting.” When Ruxton suggested that Blue Planet acknowledge the grim reality lurking beneath the show’s glossy surface, the idea was quashed. “People don’t want to hear bad news,” she was reminded.
“I was also told by a colleague at the BBC that I would never be hired as anything higher than producer because I was an older woman.” Ruxton took this as her exit cue.
With no financial backing, she left her job to direct and produce her documentary. “It was terrifying,” she says. Her battle with cancer aside, the film has been the hardest challenge of her life. But six years after the idea was born, A Plastic Ocean has amassed 14 awards as well as endorsement from Sir David Attenborough, who described it as “one of the most important films of our time”.
With public awareness now higher than ever, Ruxton is keen to harness the tide of enthusiasm to create lasting change. In December last year, China, which in 2017 purchased 60 per cent of the plastic waste from G7 countries, abruptly ceased doing so, plunging the world of plastics recycling into chaos.
“Recycling just isn’t good enough,” says Ruxton. To expunge plastic from society completely would be unrealistic, she acknowledges, but Plastic Oceans UK is already pushing for legislation that would ban or heavily tax single-use plastics. While packaging alternatives (such as those derived from food crops) also offer hope, “in a world with a starving population, even these are ethically questionable,” Ruxton argues.
Uncertain though the future is, she is optimistic about it. Children aren’t as concerned as adults by the everyday impracticalities and financial implications of a plastic-free lifestyle, says Ruxton, who has seen her grassroots activism in action.
And it’s not just wide-eyed schoolchildren joining Ruxton’s ranks. Industry is receptive too. See “Made in China”: think novelty, plastic-wrapped toys? Think again, says Ruxton. Recently her film reached leading executives at 200 major toy manufacturers in China – Mattel among them – at a screening specially organised by the Carrefour retail group.
Ruxton is convinced the world can eliminate single-use plastics by 2060. “There are so many other issues which don’t get as much publicity,” she argues. “A lot of people said, ‘Nobody is going to watch a film about plastic pollution – five minutes on YouTube will be enough’,” she says. “Obviously it wasn’t just me, but I’d like to think that I played some role in the rising awareness of plastics.”
For more information on this year’s awards, visit everywoman.com.
