060 - Beth Massa - Sustainable Packaging Entrepreneur on saving the oceans, making change from...

Today's conversation is with Beth Massa.

Beth is a sustainable packaging entrepreneur. Yeah, you might ask what that is, just like I did! It’s definitely not a term you hear every day.

Basically Beth is, as we all should be, very concerned about the environment and our impact upon the planet. She happens to be doing something about it in a very direct way by addressing the problem in her adopted home of Amsterdam.

Beth is creating a first of its kind retail store. You’ll hear her describe it in detail but, in short, it’s a store that doesn’t carry any products in single use plastic containers.

Until you really start paying attention, you probably don’t realize how much trash you’re generating using single use containers. My awareness was only heightened after watching (and being horrified by) the documentary, A Plastic Ocean. I watched probably the first 20 minutes and it completely changed things for me.

I can’t make a purchase now without questioning whether I really need that item but also questioning whether the item needs all the packaging that it comes in. As an example of what I’ve changed, Jon and I have begun taking our own containers to our local health food store to make our own peanut butter rather than buying it in plastic or glass containers. And when we buy from bulk bins, we often now carry our own bags to put items in rather than just using the bags that are provided.

So there are a couple of examples of how we’ve changed some habits. But Beth is realistic in believing that people aren’t necessarily going to make big changes on their own. She wants change to happen with the manufacturers and producers of the products. And her store will only carry goods in containers that are not single use.

This is a pretty bold move. Taking on an industry. But the other part of her story is her move to Amsterdam. She was so solid in knowing that she wanted to live there that she spent a couple of years figuring out how to make it happen. That singular focus of wanting something so badly that all of your waking time is spent figuring out how to make it reality is often a theme here. I know that feeling and it’s likely that you know that feeling, too, for something that you’ve wanted to do. So you’ll hear how she made that happen.