As head of Clean the Butts and one of ISRAEL21c’s Keep it Magniv Changemakers, I believe I am impacting the culture in Israel in two main ways.
First, through my educational work and lectures in schools all over Israel, speaking to thousands of middle and high schoolers about the negative environmental impact of the tobacco industry and giving them another, very important reason never to start smoking.
Secondly, I have organized hundreds of beach cleanups and provided more than 30,000 pocket ashtrays to smokers. Selling pocket ashtrays at the beaches has been one of the most effective activism forms because paying people to sell pocket ashtrays gives them the motivation to approach as many people as possible, which led us to speak to around 250,000 smokers.
Clean the Butts has become a leading nonprofit and its volunteers have picked up over 2 million cigarette butts. The organization has recycled thousands of pounds of cigarette butts into art or recycled plastic.
For me, there is nothing holier than the ground on which we walk on, and it is one of my life’s missions to help people remember that the spirit is right under their noses.
I want to help people live healthier lives. Cigarette butts, the world’s most common type of litter, reflects an unhealthy habit. The more healthy individuals are, the more healthy the planet. That is why we have developed a membership program that gives all our members benefits from wellness and self-development service providers and businesses. I also hope to create rehab retreats for smokers and create an NGO to bring breath exercises to schools.
One of the greatest challenges for me is to fund this whole thing by myself. All the pocket ashtrays, all the content, the website… everything has been self-funded and it has not been easy.
Growing up in Colorado, a place where nature is truly celebrated, brought the magic of the planet right to me. Also, experiencing the magical nature of Israel, from the deserts of the south, to the mountains in the north, has given me the motivation to do what I can.