When Judith is passionate about something, she dives in headfirst. Whether she’s working on conservation projects at the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, or traveling the globe to find great diving locations, or developing her community action project, Judith is committed to being a voice for the environment.

Two places Judith would like to visit are Iceland and the Patagonia glaciers.

Plastic Pollution Awareness Program

The Project
The Plastic Pollution Awareness is an ongoing program that has been implemented since 2019 by Parley for the Oceans in Mexico. The program is targeted to university students from Cancun, Mexico. Each group participates for at least 3 months. The project goal is to create awareness of the excessive consumption of plastic at home and activate youth and their families to change habits. Last year results showed us that students from Cancun identified options to avoid plastic at home allowing them to avoid 47% of the plastic they consume in a month.

Goal

The project goal is to create awareness of the excessive consumption of plastic at home and activate youth and their families to change habits.

Program Activities

1. Parley Talk. Participants must participate in a virtual talk that includes information about Parley A.I. R. strategy, plastic pollution in our oceans and coastal ecosystems and the impact in wildlife.
2. Plastic Survey. Students must register in an Excel spreadsheet all the plastic items they use in 30 days, identify if there are options free of plastic for this product and register how they manage their plastic waste at home. With the results students have to create a strategy to avoid, intercept or redesign plastic, or improve the solid waste. management at home, implemented it for 2 months and in the final month register again the use of plastic to measure impact. They also have to register brands and type of commerce where they buy the plastic products. We are convinced that the solution to plastic pollution is to avoid the use plastic and it is responsibility of all to reduce plastic pollution, not only governments or companies. We as consumers have the power to change.
3. After the NAAEE Fellowship we are doing some improvements to the program and now the students will identify a product they will continue using but doesn’t have an option free of plastic, they will contact the company that manufacture it to request a free of plastic option.
4. Students will make a pledge to avoid plastic after they finish the program.
5. Final meeting to present results and students exchanges of experiences.

Read "Parley for the Oceans: Fighting Marine and Coastal Plastic Pollution" for an update on Judith Morales' program in our blog series, CEE-Change, Together.