What's your trash story?  Can you recall a specific moment, experience, or person that sparked your love affair with trash? Can you share an early memory related to upcycling trash that left a lasting impression on you?

I've been cleaning up and collecting trash for as long as I can remember. My mum still reminds me that as a kid, I continually stuffed my pockets with all kinds of colorful broken trinkets and flower petals I found on the ground of stores and streets. Over the years, that turned into cleaning up my local beaches and learning more about the growing issue of Great Lakes plastic pollution. Growing up surrounded by these incredibly special lakes, I was absolutely devastated, but also incredibly inspired to take action. I began taking the colorful pieces of plastic I was finding on my local shorelines and turning them into colorful mosaic art pieces. After collecting over 100,000 pieces of plastic for my art pieces, I felt inspired again. Then came The Cleanup Club, my nonprofit with the mission to protect our communities and Great Lakes from plastic pollution through creativity, cleanups, and community. 

Describe your job. What’s trash got to do with it?

All of my work revolves around my ethos of "for a less trashy Earth", so trash is always inevitably a part of what I'm doing! I create art with it, I educate people about its impacts on the places we love, and I encourage people to get involved in making a difference locally through cleanups, trashy eco-art workshops, and more.

What something you’ve seen or worked on in the world of waste that you found surprising, delightful or inspiring? 

The more you learn, the more you realize how many people are working on really awesome scientific innovations, ways to upcycle, new sustainable materials... the list goes on and on. I think it can be so easy to get caught up in the doom & gloom of it all, but I really try my hardest to see the bright side, and I think there are a lot of really bright things happening around the world when you take the time to look.

This can be dirty, sometimes disheartening work. What’s something in your work that brings you joy right now? 

The people I continue to meet and conversations I continue to have along the way. I used to feel a little embarrassed to pick-up trash on the beach but over the years, I've embraced the inevitable person asking me "what are you finding over there?", and instead, now I love sparking up a conversation. You never know what will come from it, and the extra ounce of hope it may leave you with!