It’s an honor to be a guest on the McSisters Tackle Plastics blog. The focus of these three lovely sisters on untangling plastics from our daily life, in solidarity with communities fighting environmental injustice, is spot on! I’m reminded of the Margaret Mead quote, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”   

My name is Juliette Beck and I am a lifelong community organizer, climate justice advocate and mother. I’m living far from my home in California these days, writing to you from the small village of Govilon, Wales.

My husband is British and we moved here over a year ago to give our Davis-born daughters –Sumaya, aged 14 and Calia, aged 10 – an opportunity to get to know their ancestral homeland and spend time with Grandpa Buxton, a retired Anglican priest who can often be seen bicycling around town at the ripe young age of 81! It’s been such a rich experience living here in the Usk Valley that we extended our stay for another year.

Sumaya has been attending the same school – King Henry VIII – that her great-grandfather attended. Calia goes to a primary school on a hill called Deri View. The school’s mission: ““To fire imagination, ignite curiosity, and instill a lifelong love of the extraordinary” is part of a seismic shift in how Wales is governing for the future.

In a day and age where most countries are recklessly blazing towards irreversible ecological tipping points, Wales has been gradually wrestling autonomy away from Westminster, the seat of power of the United Kingdom, in order to chart a more distinctly ethical and environmentally responsible course. In 1999, Wales formed its own government on the principle of sustainable development and committed to living within environmental limits. Wales became the first country to statutorily protect the interests of future generations as enshrined in the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act.

Former Welsh Assemblywoman and sustainability champion Jane Davidson wrote in her book, Lessons from a Small Country,  that the goal was to help all sectors of society - including the economy - “focus on what really matters” by shifting “the prevailing paradigm away from the unicorn of the infinite growth, away from our headlong dash for carbon, and towards the importance of community, of kindness, of a more responsible relationship with nature.”

One of the first areas of major progress was in recycling. In a short period of time, Wales went from being one of the worst recyclers in Europe, to being one of the best.  Where we live, our recycling is picked up weekly, but landfill waste is collected every other week, so we are incentivized to minimize our family’s waste.

Green leadership in the public sector is generating a number of “knock-on benefits.” Our favorite local shop in the nearby market town of Abergavenny is the “Refillery” - a place where you can bring your own containers to measure out and purchase all your basic household food and hygiene products. 

Every few months the girls and I delight in refilling our shampoo, conditioner, laundry soap, dish soap, soy sauce, and balsamic vinegar containers. It’s a bit pricey, but I consider a trip to the Refillery an investment in helping my daughters develop the habit of consuming consciously. Before making any major purchase, I also (annoyingly) ask: Is this consistent with our intention to “buy once, last a lifetime?” 

Our family is planning to return home to Davis this summer where we will continue to work on reducing our ecological footprint. We recognize that healing our society’s addiction to fossil fuels –including curtailing the use of plastic products – is a collective effort. 

Living in this plucky little country of Wales has given me renewed hope that by focusing on the well-being of young people and the future we want, transformative change is possible. 

We have one wild and wondrous planet. Let’s work together to keep it safe and thriving for generations to come.

Juliette Beck is currently working on her first book tentatively titled Reparation Generation: Coming of Age in a Planetary Crisis about her family’s quest to heal intergenerational harm, fight for ecological justice and chart a rapid course out of the hot mess we are in. You can reach her at juliettebuxtonbeck@gmail.com