Olympic Skier Wears Her Rubbish For first Week Of her 40s
Former British Olympic skier and TV presenter Chemmy Alcott has spent the past week, the first seven days of her 40s, wearing the rubbish she created.
Chemmy was challenged to wear her rubbish for a week by circular skiwear company EcoSki in a bid to highlight the amount we send to landfill and its impact on climate change.
Mum-of-three Chemmy, who turned 40 on 10 July, wore recycled plastic bags filled with the rubbish she “throws out” over the course of a week while attending events in London, doing the school run and even while out paddleboarding.
On the final day she weighed it all and found her rubbish at the end of the week was 4.5kg, 100 grammes more than one of her 4.4kg race skis.
“I was surprised by how much waste I generate. I made conscious decisions to waste very little last week — no Amazon purchases with all the packaging that comes with it — taking reusable water bottles and coffee cups everywhere. We can do so much better. It’s been so hot in London, I spent time explaining to places that were handing out cold drinks in plastic cups what our EcoSki mission was, trying to get people to change.”
Chemmy went to kids picnics, paddleboarding, did some yoga, to a red carpet event, to the Houses of Parliament…all the while trying to educate people, actively making eye contact with people on buses and tubes and explaining the mission.
EcoSki aims to help consumers make more sustainable choices by offering rental, repair and re-sale of new and preloved ski kit as well as solutions for end-of-life.
EcoSki also sells new items from a carefully curated selection of brands who manufacturer with the highest environmental and social standards.
The average Briton throws away 400kg of rubbish each year — seven times their own bodyweight, and only 45% of our rubbish is recycled.
“When we shop we try to do as much as we can to reduce how much will eventually end up in landfill or recycling, but as a family of four, with my two young sons, we do generate rubbish,” says Chemmy, who is an ambassador for EcoSki.
“I’m made it absolutely real life, no cheating. I’m really pleased to be doing this during the first week of my forties, so I am forced into make even more changes to the way we live going forwards.”
Skier Chemmy has observed first-hand the devastating impact of climate change on the mountains, commenting.
“I’ve spent much of my life in the mountains, the impact of climate change in the world I know and love is very black and white – we see it more than anyone else with changing weather patterns, extreme events and changes to the snow levels.”
