Keeping Packaging in Circulation - Green Bubble

Hello and welcome to the Book of Leaves podcast. My name is Kara Kone and I am your host. Hello and welcome to the very last episode of 2025 of Book of Leaves. My name is Kara and I am an actor by trade and a theatre maker. But I have begun this podcast a couple years ago in 2019 as a way to platform people in Ireland that are doing positive things for the planet and the whole idea is listeners take a leaf editor book, the guest book, actor their own way of eco-friendly living, which is where the name comes from and I am loving this passion project of mine and thank you so much for tuning in. This episode is going to be chatting to Peter Gregory who runs the company Green Bubble. I thought as it's Christmas time it would be very fitting to have the last episode about packaging and things like that because obviously Christmas can be quite a wasteful time of year when it comes to packaging. And now you will hear about a man who is trying to have a positive impact on the packaging and repurpose bubble wrap and not other forms of packaging waste that would usually be used once and then dumped and here comes Peter and he's trying to make a last not just once but forever ideally. So I'm delighted to have him here and before I pass the mic over to him I just want to say thank you so much for tuning in all year to book of leaves. It has been a hard to keep the podcast going sometimes but that I get really lovely comments or people say hello to me at protests and things like that and let me know that they listen to the podcast and that really does mean a lot because sometimes I forget that. All the people listen to it I take make a point of not looking at the numbers of downloads and listenership and stuff like that because you could just end up staring at the whole time so I don't know how many people listen or download this. So when people come up and say I really like what you're doing it really does mean the world and I am hoping to be back in 2026 but who knows what life will bring and I'm sorry I do sound a little bummed up now but tightly in this episode I am not. And for anyone subscribed to book of leaves on Patreon I will be pausing the subscription service then for February and January so you won't be charged for those months and maybe March I might start back in April. So those three months you won't be charged if you are someone who contributes to the podcast but if you're someone who still would like to support the work that I do you're more than welcome to sign up to Patreon of course and you'll be billed then in April when the podcast is back hopefully. Or you can just donate once off on by me a coffee.com forward slash book of leaves and I'll link the two of them in the show notes and thank you so much to the patrons who have supported the podcast all year. It'll come up now to the time where I am renewing the web hosting fees and all that kind of stuff so it'll be really really helpful for that. And speaking of the show notes and things been linked there if there's any particular company that we mention in the interview I have linked them in the show notes so they'll be easy for you to find and I've timestamped our conversation as well. I don't think this much else to say I'll pass the mic over to Peter the morning of the podcast he had invited me to this kind of coffee catch-up event with other climate people which was really nice to attend. So I had attended that and then we were walking over then to the library where we recorded the podcast and Peter is someone who really does live by what he breaches because as we were walking he was picking up litter as we were heading to the interview booth. So yeah I just love people who practice what they preach so I'm sure you will be able to take a leaf or two at Peter's book here he is and I will catch you after for some very quick show notes. What we're finally here. So on the founder of Greenbubble and we collect waste basically and we're trying to add value to it. We started off with Bobberapp collecting from furniture stores and relocation companies and now we've got a range of six or seven items so we're progressing nicely. Nice it's not just Greenbubble anymore it's Green waste Green packaging Green packaging yeah I suppose I'm a waste broker so I'm trying to find people who can add value to materials that have come what you've been discarded. Yeah. Deadly and we'll delve into that more but I love to get people's kind of journey into sustainability and things like that so were you always someone who was kind of aware of waste streams or was there a catalyst or a single person who kind of inspired you in this way or how did that journey begin. Yeah I suppose my that's the way my mind works and I was brought up like that with my mum and dad telling me to turn off lights and turn the tap off and all that sort of things. I've always thought about waste and resources so when I started my adult life going into work environments I'd see all the incredible amounts of waste and I was like come on let's do something good with it. I worked in logistics and transport and printing so yeah that's always been my background I've always thought okay right let's try and make things as lean as possible. Yeah okay and were the logistics and stuff that you worked in initially was that anything sustainability related and transport wise or whatever or religious their own kind of. Yeah I was a transport manager for a huge sign manufacturer so I was working in the logistics side but then I'd always think right okay let's work on back loads as well so if one of our delivery vans was going to the north of England can we collect something on the way back to save another van coming that way so yeah I suppose that's the source of the way I've been thinking and whatever role I've had how can we reduce our impact on the environment. So it's not necessarily environmental role but that's the way I always thought. Yeah and when then did you decide to take the leap with green bubble during covid I suppose yeah I was mainly redundant few days before covid started. I was quite fortunate in that time because we had our first son so we were able to spend a lot of time with him but also I was able to think about what I wanted to do and I'd always had an interest in packaging and one day my wife received a box with lots of rubber up in it, small item I'm sure we've all received that box. Sure we're the giant box and there's loads of empty space that they just feel. Yeah well why have you put so much packaging in there and the rubber up stayed in the corner for quite a few weeks and then I thought actually what happens to it? Where does it go? So I did my research and found out that most of it gets incinerated or sent to Europe to be recycled. Very little is recycled in Ireland but what I thought was like why can't we just reuse it in its original form? We're not breaking it down, we shouldn't be recycled it's perfectly good material. Yeah so yeah I did a few start your own business courses and did a lot of networking thinking right okay what can I do something with it? Yeah here we are four or five years later and yeah we're going well. Anyone who works in an industry or company that has kind of even deliveries coming in and like the shrink wrap that I've literally witnessed when we get drinks deliveries, the quantities truck will pull up outside, they'll unload the cardboard boxes of beer onto a big pallet and then they will in front of me wrap that in like a big cling film thing. Just to move it on the crate like 50 meters down the lane way to get into the side entrance or whatever the building where we immediately unwrap and they're doing that obviously so no stock falls off or whatever. There's a safety issue you can't. Of course. If it's going to cause an issue and I don't know injure someone then okay I understand why they're doing that. I suppose you just got to look at reducing what can take away from the packaging. Smaller boxes or the correct size boxes first say Amazon delivery or wherever they're distributing it from. Yeah exactly. So there won't be as much box fill. Well when I first moved to Ireland I was in between jobs and I did some agency work in a warehouse. So all the boxes would be delivered and it was a fulfillment centre so you had to then put the deliveries or the items on the shelf and the boxes would be full of bobber wrap. So that bobber wrap would be bailed and sent away collected the company will have to pay for that collection. And then the last few days I was there I was fulfilling the orders so we would take in the items off the shelf and then using virgin bobber wrap. So I sort of said to the manager all the supervisor your disposal of perfectly good material are your bobber wrap, your pain to dispose of that then you're sort of paying for virgin bobber wrap. Can't you link the two? Yeah let's move that bobber wrap from that side of the warehouse to this side and it was a bit reluctant to start with. What? Because there'd be one or two pierced bobbles in the bobber wrap like well. It wasn't the pierced but it was just the convenience of it because it was all about time and let's take from a fresh roll and make sure it's clean and dry. That's clean and dry what you're discarding. Let's just move that fill a bin up and then move to the side whenever you need it and they start doing it and to this day they've stopped buying virgin bobber wrap. On real? So that was the other thing I was like okay I know there's companies and distributions tend to steal buying a lot of bobber wrap and also disposing of it. I was thinking right can I connect can I be that guy in the middle collecting it from certain companies. companies and then delivering it to people who need it. So yeah, it's just incredible how much waste single use packaging. Have you got any statistics for us of what it's like in Ireland? It's actually really difficult to get any hard facts on how much bubble wrap is being used. I've tried to Google it, I've done a lot of research, but because a lot of it's still being imported, for example, if you're buying a leather sofa from Harvey Norman or any top sofa, it would be shipped from Italy, for instance. It would be wrapped in bubble wrap or similar material called Furnigard, which is bubble wrap with a extra soft layer on it. And then delivered to the store, dropped off at home, the bubble wrap would then go back to the warehouse and then discard it off. So it's actually, there's no hard facts about how much bubble wrap or quantities that are being discarded at the moment. And the waste management companies are a bit reluctant to give me those figures. Yeah, that's not because they probably, as you said, yourself. Like, if it's not shipped abroad, it's incinerated. I don't know the science of it, but I know soft plastics are really hard to recycle because every time you recycle plastic, you get you downgraded. It's not as good a material unlike aluminum that can be recycled infinitely without any kind of downgrade to the material. And soft plastic is already a pretty crappy material. So I can imagine that it is really hard to recycle, but if it's a function, like bubble wrap has a function, and if it's delivered, there'll be a couple of bubbles maybe on periods. But the thing still works perfectly. So I just think that's all just been going to waste. Yeah, there's so annoying. I was talking to a waste management company and they informed me that they incinerate 100% of the bubble wrap they collect. Oh my god. So it's either going to cement kilns or waste to energy, so the Kavanta site. But my point is, let's reuse it in its original form. Why are we burning perfectly? Yeah. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? We're allowing this to happen. Yeah. It's crazy. It's wild. And this is a waste collection company in Ireland. Like we were talking about before we started recording. So they are collecting your. I won't name them. They're collecting our weedy bins and stuff like that. Like it's a domestic waste service. So it's just fun. Yeah, exactly. And all from the. So I collect from furniture stores, relocation companies. There's a few that I've got on board now. But it's helping them with their ESG targets and on reducing their waste bills as well. I can imagine. So they were paying for it to be disposed of. But now we're collecting it. Yeah. We're collecting it for free. So then we can add value to it. And do you. Can you collect from businesses all across Ireland or how does that work? I do. I've got a company in Shannon that we collect a lot of material from. But then I also have to. I'm trying to keep things local. But then I've got to figure out the logistics of getting it to Dublin. Yeah. So the company in Shannon, I have to then try and speak to a delivery company who are going out to Shannon with material and then they'll collect for me and bring it back. So it's not a dedicated service. Sure. So ideally we're looking for more companies in Dublin that we can collect from. But if there's companies out there in Ireland, we can try and figure out the logistics of it. And how much bubble wrap are you talking that a company should have? Like I've brought. For people who obviously can see, I've brought the tiniest bag of bubble wrap that I've got. The like, let's just in work. Like is there anything too big or too small? Not at all. No, no. The thing is I don't want people going out of their way to get the bubble wrap to me. So I've kind of had people contact me on Facebook and Instagram saying, "Oh, I've got this small bag of bubble wrap. Can I post it to you?" But the cost of getting that bubble wrap to me. Probably outweighs the. Yeah. So I always say, if you can donate it to a local school or arts group or charity shop, I'd rather you do that than pay 10 euro to post it to Greenbubble and Dublin. We're trying to find suppliers in Dublin because the demand is there. We're trying to find more companies locally. So yeah, people can donate and appreciate your back this morning. But I guess it's still in some places like me. Like I'm where I work, we don't get necessarily bubble wrap deliveries in so much. We get like a lot of cardboard. And then sometimes as I was saying, the deliveries can be wrapped in like that. This claim for them type material. Sometimes what happens, depending on like we cause it to theatre, we'll get like posters delivered or sometimes if the bar maybe changes menu. There might be like bubble wrap there. Or our biggest source if bubble wrap tools come in or any kind of plastic packaging is from events, corporate events, higher hall space that we have. And depending on what they bring in, we have bubble wrap. So I feel like maybe some listeners are like, well I don't work in a supermarket or a company that generates waste or tools. They're a reason whatever. But if you are working somewhere like an art gallery or wherever that receives something that has bubble wrap, surely I will now just keep that aside, put it in a bag and then when it gets, when we can store it anymore or even before that, I'll get onto you and you can come collect. So for listeners, they can do the same. It's not just for you know, you could just be in an office and you know, there's a delivery of loads of whatever, frames coming in that will be wrapped in bubble wrap and you just keep that aside. I don't think you surely shouldn't need permission from your manager or your supervisor. All thankfully have that but you know, if it's just a person, it can work as well. Yeah and it's surprising how much bubble wrap is used still. People try to move away from it. I'll get that. But one of my biggest suppliers at the moment, when I first approached them to say this is what I'm doing, this is what we need to try and do. Their first response was we don't have any bubble wrap. We don't collect it and I was like, okay, can we try and do a trial for a month or so just to see if you get any deliveries in, you can put it to one side and now they're one of my biggest suppliers. Really? So they just weren't thinking of it. They just were like, everything's cardboard now or? Yeah or plastic or shrink wrap. But actually when they segregated it and when they put it into a separate bag, which they do for me now, they give me two or three big bags a week, which is incredible. That is amazing. So it's actually surprising what people can collect and say, there's so much of it out there that I've got two or three regular suppliers. As I say, I'm trying to find more, but it's still surprising how much bubble wrap is still being used. So if we can do something positive with it, then that's what we're here for. And so you get it and you collect your swordage and stuff like what you do. What happens? For instance, there's the furniture store out in sorts. They would deliver it to sunflower recycling on the north strand. sunflower recycling, a social enterprise and they're trying to help we get back into work after various struggles. So they're doing a fantastic job there. They've been there for 30 or 30 years, I believe. And it's a recycling centre for everything for house and door. No, no, they just, there's a recycling centre or bring back centre next door to them. Brilliant. And then behind that is sunflower recycling. So they're collecting cardboard, paper and now bubble wrap and fernigard. The other materials they recycle, but with our material we'll reuse it. So yeah, it's been a great partnership and we've started just selling a moving kit. So because we were collecting boxes as well, yeah, from a removal company. We now sell 15 boxes, used boxes and 10 metres of bubble wrap for 20 euros. So if you move in house, you can do it in a more sustainable way. One real and then can you take them back then? Yes, yeah, you'll like them things back. Yeah, some people drop them back off, which is great. And one of our regular customers there in events company and they were sort of so impressed with green bubble. They've built us a bubble wrap bin. So we drop the bubble wrap off to them. They use it packaging their items, put the bubble wrap into the bubble wrap bin, which has hinges and wheels and it's all nice and tidy and neat. And then I collect it from them and then we can tell that to other people. So we're trying to keep it as as circular as possible. Nice. And so you were talking about the other types of waste as well, like our board boxes. So you've got you've branched out from bubble wrap which is amazing because there is just so much different types of waste like packaging nuts and we recently got a delivery of a poster into work that had those. It was clear plastic, joined bubbles like a. Yes, more box fill. Boxed parcels, yeah. So what specific packaging are you collecting now that isn't just bubble wrap that people can collect for you? So we've got the bubble wrap, we've got the Furniture Guard which I mentioned earlier, which is bubble wrap but with an extra soft layer. Yeah, I think I know the one you're talking about. If a sofa or some top furniture would be coming from another country, if they use bubble wrap the bubbles would leave an imprint. So they had to add an extra soft layer on it. Yeah. And when I started green bubble I didn't know about this material but it's incredible stuff. Again, it's been used once and disposed of. So that's called Furniture Guard. We've collected the boxes as well. The acetate sheets which is a byproduct of printing plates. I used to work in printing so I was like, we'd peel the acetate sheets off. These are the sticky covers that come off? No, acetate is used in lots of sort of arts and crafts. Okay. Making cards and that sort of thing. So we're actually supplying art supplies as well. As well as class supplies. There's hexacon boxes and hexacon boards. Again, these were the boxes for the printing plates. I used to work and I was thinking these would be great for shipping artwork because it's a really strong robust base. But it's very lightweight. So we've actually started supplying these to artists if they're shipping their artwork to your real-of-the-guy last week who used one of our bigger boxes, a load of bubble wrap shipping is very expensive artwork to Germany. So things like that are really sort of coming along. we've got the phone rolls as well. I don't know if you remember recreate on the cell side there was social enterprise collecting. Oh wait, it was just like the like a center, you paid a membership to the center and then you would go and you collect it like waste in quotes but like it was stuff that you could repurpose. Yeah, exactly. No, they closed down, well in the start of the year but whenever when it in there there was these phone rolls and all like these incredible rolls. So now we take them from the supplier and we try and repurpose them for packaging, insulation and that sort of thing. Everything that we collect is currently being discarded. So as I say we're just trying to say don't throw it out. Yeah, there's other people. So who are your customers that like I know there was a pottery maker in in Dundalk that I put on to you before I don't know if she ever did. She was like this is this is really cool because that obviously she if she ever ships her really precious ceramics. Yes. Like you can't there's some things that yeah I'll happily stuff rolled up newspaper around to get the kind of feel the space but obviously certain things like you need to make sure or say you've been protected. So what suits the artist kind of down to the ground. Yeah, so Amesis artists we supply rolls to you store it the the store would do and it's all over on actually and in Northern Ireland so we supply them with three-minute square rolls of bobber up sort of a hundred at a time. People moving homes as I say they've got the eco moving kits we've sold nearly a hundred of them in the last few months so they're there flying out the door and any individual who would need bobber up we often get a guy sort of he might be shipping his guitar to back home or to Europe and he'll say I just need ten meters of bobber up we sort of half the price of awardees as well so yeah it's it's come along nicely. And do people just book or order it on your website? They can order online or contact me directly a lot of people start collecting from sunflower as well they'll be very helpful. Amazing and the Rediscovery Centre yourself there as well there's like rules of it. Yes. Rediscovery Centre which is an amazing hub. They've been really supportive and they've even collecting material from me. A few people are dropping off I collect it and then I'm supplying to their their eco stores as well so yeah if you have a need that you can collect firewood ten meters from the from the Rediscovery Centre as well. It's so clever and do you know how much waste you've diverted from from landfill or incineration or being shipped abroad since you've started? We're nearly up to 18,000 square meters. What the hell? Some impressive amount isn't it? That's wild. So proud of it. Jeez Louise. And you're one man show mostly but I know recently you've got you've got a new member join the team so are you never two person kind of companies? Yes. Yes I've got a Agnone board helping me with the marketing which which I need a bit help with. It's hard when you're dealing with everything by yourself like there's so much to it I think as we were saying there's so many people who like start their own business and then they just end up working 24/7 like it's just it's non-stop what you do it because you love it and you really care about it. Yeah exactly. Well some flower recycling have been really supportive. Now people can collect the moving kits from their fair sort of kind of dealing with that side which takes a bit pressure off me and I can do lovely podcast like this. So yeah it's coming along it's been a slog and there was time as well thinking why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? So I'm a Jeff for not much return but I'm getting to a point now where it's sort of yeah kind of a bit traction and people are hearing about the good work that we're doing. Amazing. And if there are people whether in a in a home sense or their artwork or whatever and there is a delivery of something that they're not sure if you'll collect or repurpose if it's like pack and peanuts or whatever can they get in touch with you and see is there something that you'd like. Yeah definitely. And you can just just all know whether or not it's worth going to pick up or whatever. Yeah I'm getting a lot more inquiries about other types of waste. I'm a waste broker trying to find a home for this material but yeah there's there's bubble up out there or people are unsure about certain packaging that they're consuming a lot of then yeah more than happy to have a chat with them. And what would your dream scenario for packaging in the world be? Yeah that's a good question. A few people have said to me why are you doing this because bubble wrap isn't going to exist in five years on and great that's that's what we want. We don't want people to be using bubble wrap. So if we can move away from that and find something more sustainable then great if we can if we can make material out of bioplastics which is an ideal world but the current situation we're still consuming huge amounts of bubble wrap and as I say the Furnick ad. Green bubble really shouldn't exist but it does because we're trying to do something with the current situation when the middle of a climate crisis but also plastic crisis. So there's huge amounts of material that we're just discarding so yeah ideally yeah we won't be using plastic for for packaging but in our current situation we are. And what do you have any I guess leaves people can take out of your book whether they are in a business or they're just an individual like what would be your advice to them on reduce and they're the for printer they're waste from packaging. Yeah I suppose it's it's reducing what we're currently using. Yeah. Obviously there's the waste hierarchy and reduce and reuse so we can reduce the amount of packaging that we are using. Yeah. Then ideal but if we are using it let's try and reuse it before it gets recycled so to to give an advice as an individual reduce what you have to use and then try and try and look at what you're using and let's see if we can do something positive with it. It's kind of just so simple in that there's so many orders now refuse, reduce, reuse, rethink like recyclers like the last one. Yeah. I think it's just the case of knowing that from my perspective every little bit matters. Yes. The bag of puller up I've given you is so small but I'm like well I don't care because at least it's not going to landfill. Yeah. And that little bit of plastic could have been blown off the bin and been the sea and seal has eaten that one or whatever it you know what I mean. That bubble wrap that you handed me this morning that would now go to some flower, they'd measure it roll it up into say three meters where roll that would go to use store it for instance and if someone's moving house they'll be using that. So with that's really nice. Yeah. That's what will happen to it. Yeah. And as even we've donated some material to the new restore or habitat for humanity in glass never. It's like a charity store for furniture and home where goods are whatever. I never heard of them and only they opened one in Dublin recently. They've a couple in Northern Ireland I think and one somewhere else in the Republic. Yeah. And the new one in glass never. So incredible store but again I've donated some of that material so even the small bits that I can't roll back up would find a good use for it. Yeah. So it's sort of every tiny bit that we're collecting we're trying to do something good with it. It's magic. Even there was an artist on Southside Dublin she does pop and paint classes for children with additional needs so they paint on the bubble wrap and then pop it half with so be like a sensory class. Oh nice. So I even donate some material to them as well. So every small bit is being reused. That's so cool. That's also cool. Is there anything else about green bubble you want to share before I move on to the last couple of questions? Green bubble are trying to scale and have a as I say positive impact with all the waste that companies are disposing of. We're also helping businesses so reduce their business cost but also their ESG target so we can go back to companies and say right we've collected X amount material from you in 2025. We do the carbon calculations and we say right this is your carbon reduction for that year so with their ESG report and we can we can supply report to them. What's your website and like email of people have questions or kind of want to give all their waste and rubbish to you. Website is green hyphen bubble.e and the email addresses info@greenhyphen bubble.e. Lovely stuff. So you were a chance that growing up your parents were quite influential to you in waste reduction and resource use of keeping the lights off and not letting the tap run and stuff which I always open. I think I do find a comment read on this podcast nonstop of the impact that parents have on on their children and how they inspire in how they respect and interact with the world. So I guess as Peter, as a dad, as a human on the planet like what do you do in your life to try to live a bit more likely on the planet is there anything that you do that you would like to share what listeners that they might be able to do as well. I've got two gorgeous young boys, five and three. Look enough to have a compost bin in the garden so when the boys if there's any food waste or anything like that I'm trying to teach them about composting. Little things like that that I know certain other children wouldn't have the privilege or because we're not being people would have a garden. So we're really up to our garden we put the compost bin in there but teaching them simple things like composting then and then what happens to it and then we put it back onto the garden and then we show them the roses or the the flowers that we've got in the garden so simple things like that but then also just like you said turning the tap off when they're brushing their teeth turn the lights off they love switching the lights on and off constantly but I try and say okay we'll turn the lights off now but we go to bed simple things like that which my dad would have shown me when I dringa because it's all just reducing the energy bill. and energy consumption. So, little basic things like that. - But the things you're an important. - Like, looking at your life and the path you've gone down, like those seeds that your dad sowed, like, were so important, you know? And I find it in my parents as well. Like, the fact that they encouraged me to go outside and they encouraged a sense of all and wonder in nature. And when I became aware of certain things in regards to animals or recycling or whatever, they were never dismissive or put me down or said that that's not important. And like, the kids are the next generation. Like, they're like, we're just guardians and we'll be passing what we're taking care of onto them. So, I think that, you know, I don't have kids. I've been nice and a few nephews, but I try to instill the same sense of all and wonder, like, my niece is just, she's eight and everything is about shopping now. Everything is about going to pennies. So, like, when I take her out, I'm like, well, we're gonna go to the charity shop and we're gonna get our shop and kick from there. And then it's try making it and much more fun kind of like treasure hunt instead of going to shop where you see 50 of the same thing of like, let's see if we can find, you know, what you're looking for. What, you know, and there's just so much more fun and enjoyment out of it, but hopefully then, she'll grow up with that seed, so and, you know, her eyes will be open. And it's just, it's just making the future so much easier because the kids are already kind of thinking that way. Yeah, definitely. I would always say about if there's any litter in the street, pick it up or it'd always be telling other kids off if they drop litter, which I've started to myself. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Without trying to get into any argument or anything. What's your, what's your pitch? What do you say if you see someone drop something? I would just point it out. I would say, oh, I think you've accidentally dropped something there and sometimes they're like, oh, yeah, okay, or I might get a look and I won't want to cause any arguments. But I'll just try and approach it. I liked, I was listening to a podcast with Gobernett and she was saying about the diesel vehicles being left on in Temple Bar and how her pitch and approach them to say, oh, how long are you going to be here for? Because I can't quite hear what we were doing in our office. I thought I was a brilliant pitch and why I had to start using that. Because even with the drop offs at, at question school, a lot of the parents will be leaving their cars on and then running across to the school. And then we're there for two minutes. So yeah, I've tried to approach them diplomatically, but I'm going to be using that line. But no, it's worth a try always. And even today, on the way to the podcast, Peter picked up a battery off the floor. Oh, I can't even say a side. But I think that all the time, I remember standing at the crossroads once waiting for the lights to go green. And whatever rubbish was in front of me, there was like, I think it was a discarded polystyrene burger box, which thankfully those things are like, oh, now the flashmasome places still use them. And I just remember looking at the thing, I mean, like so like God's sake, like humans are so annoying sometimes. And while I was spiraling, staring at this rubbish waiting for the lights to go green, a different woman comes up beside me. And she just bent down, picked it up. And I was like, well, that's a lesson for me. I can stand there and like, wind your way to something. All right, I actually picked it up as like, oh, bye. So I don't do every bit of rubbish. I do it if there's like a big, clear plastic thing, like flying towards me, flying around on the path that I'm walking on. I will always like pick that up and put that into the next being because I know from having chatted to Seal of Rescue Ireland on the podcast or like just watching nature documentaries of clear, like it will all end up in the river. And then the river goes out to the sea and clear plastic, just looks like jellyfish. Like and it's just so detrimental. And the way that the wind catches it, it will just be blown there. So if I see, like for some reason, a lot of people seem to take their toilet paper out of the toilet paper and then those will be flying around the street for some reason. I do, I picked them up. But I've people who've said, but you're really a germafold when it comes to like, you know, rails on the buses or whatever. I'm like, yeah, but I don't know. Plastic on the sheet. It just doesn't bother me for it. I've got a tin of vapes at home. Use vapes that I'll picked up from the streets on the scourons. Yeah. And then I'll take them to the bring back center next to some flour. Yeah, it's incredible. The amount just from one single run, same group every day. Wow. I must have picked up nearly 100 odd sets. Geez. I'm the same one. That's just in one area. Yeah. Yeah. What can you do? I know because there's such a valuable resource. But there's a thing. There's a lot of things in there as well. And it's dangerous. Exactly. So the waste companies, too, actually dispose of them. Yeah. So we need to shop up them in the battery recycling boxes. Yeah. Yeah, there's lots of little things like that with genomic. I know. But then it like-- I don't know the podcast for that. Exactly. People could be like, this is, you know, why I'm just one small difference, one small person is never going to make a change. But you just don't know where that battery will end up or whatever. I mean, if everyone thinks that way, then what's the point of democracy? Like it just doesn't-- Everyone has a-- can make a change, even if-- Well, that's our green bubble started. No one else is-- what has a bubble wrap reuse company in the world. You think I'm the person doing this? Really? Sort of front door, oh my god. Yeah, there might be a reason for that. But I'm-- Yeah. I thought something has to be done. Well, hopefully you'll spark the idea in other people's because I know this is something I find in the podcast as well. Don't get keep their ideas. Like the Lynn who runs the upcycle movement of she/oppsicles, that's who she goes and trains other people how to do what she does. This is her living, like, she'll sell, you know, upcycled wetsuits that are made into bags and purses or whatever, but she'll go and scale share so that other people can do the same thing. Because she's looking around and going, there's too much waste for little me to do everything. So like, anyone listening, if you're in carrier, whatever, like do the same thing in your area or whatever, or get and touch a computer and work together, like it's-- If anyone wants to reuse Bob or App, please do, because there's more than enough to go around. Yeah. I'm only collecting from sort of two or three companies at the moment and I'd like every furniture store and distribution company and fulfillment center, relocation company, they're all using that sort of material, even if it's in small amounts. So there's hundreds of those companies just in Dublin alone. There's more we can do. There's more that we can do. There's more and there's loads to go around. And another thing that you do is you attend where I was at with you this morning, is these climate catch-up kind of chats every month or so, like in your lab people know what they are? Yeah, Kate and Nathan from Bold Donuts help set up the climate catch-up. We meet once a month for a coffee and a chat and just say what we're doing and introduce everyone there. They can have a little-- it's very informal. But it's amazing. I always come away from it refreshed and re-energised and I've made some great contacts from there. And even if you're not into sustainability, just come along for a chat and a coffee, see what everyone else is doing. And you can certainly be inspired, even with what you're doing. Because sometimes I feel very at a place if I go to conferences or I go to sustainability meetings where everyone is working on a thing. And I'm just an actor who-- I wrote a podcast but I work in a theater that's nothing got to do with the industry but there's always ideas and leaves like to take out of other people's books to add to what I'm doing and work. So what bold don't I do? I hadn't heard of them before. And they make games that basically through a fun interactive game similar to Candy Crush or whatever teach people how to use energy. And-- To put their waste. Where you put the waste or whatever in like big companies. And that's really clever. So I'm like, hmm, can I do that in my little theater? So it's just really lovely as well just to meet like minded people. And this is something that anyone could set up anywhere. Like if they wanted to just have like climate chats. Definitely. Yeah. Because I met Andrew Schoen from sustainabilityexample.com at this catch-up. And now we're on their platform. And their company's promoting other companies, similar to Green Bubble, having a positive impact on the environment. So it's a fantastic platform. Yeah, it's just a network of like positivity of like-- Yeah, exactly. --or connections of the past, pretty. So as we were chatting as well in the climate catch-up this morning, I love to take a leaf at a Rob Hopkins book who thinks that we're in a crisis of the imagination, not just a climate crisis, because we're just faced with so many dystopian narratives. So if you imagine while we've actually been chatting here, this little, same-proof audio booth has actually turned into a time machine. And when you step out, you actually find yourself maybe 30, 40, 50 years into the future. And everything that was an issue in 2025 has been resolved. Like oppression, climate change, there are systems in place that have made those go away. There's still, you know, everyday drama, grief, and love, and heartbreak, and all that kind of stuff. But in regards to the systems that are in place, when you walk around Dublin, or you zoom in and look at Ireland, at Europe, the world, there's so much that has been achieved. If you walk around, what can you see, what can you feel, what are some of your favorite things about today, now that everything has been fixed? I love to walk out of here. And you won't see a car, you won't see any airplanes, you see lots more trees, you see people walking around, everything's within walking distance. You're walking to work or you're cycling to work. There's no litter on the street. You just feel as though there's too much convenience now, so we need to step back from that. Back in 2025, there's too much convenience. Yeah, yeah. So it's sort of, yeah. But still, I feel like it's still convenient today, but the systems have been changed so that if we do have a waste product from shipping and art, because there's art everywhere, everyone makes art and does art, because people need to work less. maybe there is like bubble wrap or everywhere has like there are collection and redistribution centers everywhere and like they're not recycling centers as much as they are recirculation centers maybe you know. Yeah that's a great idea yeah just being able to pass it along and you wouldn't have to package it up because someone's maybe heading in a certain direction I can take it for you and there's all these nice little communities working together. Yeah. In synergy so I'd love to see that but I think no pop-peters, no pop-peters, no pop-peters, no to see that. I'd love to see that yeah. Because I remember being on holidays in Spain back in 2022 or something and in their squares all around their city I can't remember what what area it was but they had those big kind of standalone like A-Zero poster boxes just kind of in the middle of the square with whatever ad but on in the poster box they're quite thick because there'd be a poster on either side advertise them like the both company or a perfume or whatever. At the top of it were five or six different types of holes. Each hole was a different shape and each hole was for a different thing that people need to recycle. So one of them was a circular hole for light bulbs. One of them was a really small hole for batteries. One of them was a slit for CDs and then there was one or two other shaped things as well and like that was all over the city everywhere so that people didn't need to worry about going to you know collecting the batteries to bring to the super the big super market because the local supermarkets doesn't have a battery collection thing and then bring your light bulbs to this place and your CDs where did they go so I'll just put them in the bin. It was just everywhere. I thought it was so cool so now in 2060 they're there everywhere as well or there's things like that but on the ads there's no advertising for there's only advertising for circular things or public transport or art but events there's no perfume ads anymore and so I can see stuff like that. Yeah that'll be all I do. Yeah yeah Peter thank you so much thank you so much for giving me your time and just for everything that you do and hopefully a lot of people will be sent in bubble wrap and packing peanuts your way and if they need it no it's your yeah exactly. There you have it the last episode of 2025 and I'm very grateful to Peter because we were trying to get this interview to happen for so long and we finally made it happen so absolutely delighted and I'll be collecting bubble wrap and other kind of packaging waste that comes into work and keeping it aside for him so hopefully you'll be able to do that as well or if you find that there's loads of packaging in your area you may be you can start your own business and repurpose it. I just love it. I just love people who see a problem and instead of thinking about it or complaining about it they take action about it so hopefully this will inspire you to do the same if the urge comes over you and it is of course a really tough time to exist in the world let alone a Christmas time so I'm sending a lot of love to anyone who finds this time a year specifically difficult what I do to fill my cup is take some time away from family when I need it to recharge and read or spend time in nature I really do love a lot of thickener hands or plum villages and meditations their podcast the way out is in is a really nice peaceful one to listen to over the holidays I think but do go easy on yourself and of course I love going to events like solidarity events and oh my god speaking of which I went to a solidarity event for Palestine last week which was to raise money for people who've been arrested Chan and LNG for protesting the US military playins that are there illegally and at this event Greta Thunberg was there and it was amazing to see her in person she had been speaking at an event the day prior in Bose football club hosted her for and I unfortunately was working I wasn't able to make it I was raging and then my friend messaged me saying that she'll possibly be at this event so I went along and she was there and it was really cool to me one of your climate heroes but I was surprised at how not Stairstruck I was because I'm someone who gets a very Stairstruck by not very famous people and she was just such a regular woman just there hanging out yeah it was just really cool to be in that room not but just her but all of these grassroots activists and emotional as it was at times and as heavy as what we were chatting about at times was it was so refreshing and so lovely to be around grassroots activists so that's another thing that I found very helpful at this time of year as for what I'm watching reading listening to I'm actually listening to audiobooks more now than podcasts so I was listening to the sky song I think it's called like this fantasy book about a woman who turns into a skylark in the morning and I was just I just needed some kind of fantasy to switch off to and I'm reading I've just started to anya maris book the frog roots polka dot noots and other treasures of Irish nature and that's so lovely it has really lovely paragraphs about various plants and animals that are in Ireland and the chapters are organized in the months of the year so you can dip in it out of it if you like but I'm really enjoying that and then something that I watched that's not related to environmentalism at all is a TV show called The Pit it's basically set in an A&E over 16 hours or 15 hours in each episode is an hour long like an hour of the shifts at like 10 to 8 in the morning and then 8 to 9 or whatever oh my god I binged the entire thing in a week it was phenomenal the acting in it that was that that was really good so yeah that's a bit about what I'm doing and now for Christmas I'm home in wax-rood where my mom and my brothers I am going to go get a vegan roast hopefully there's still some left I'm not one for a cookin' from scratch so yeah I have to go find one of those I've ordered some organic veg from greener to organics so that'll be lovely and yeah just hoping to keep the piece and to have as little rails as possible over Christmas time and I will leave it there and I just want to say thank you so so much for listening to book at least I am so so grateful for the time that you give me and as always if there are any suggestions that you have for topics or people that you would like to have in the podcast please do get in touch and let me know who or what they are and I'll be more than happy to line them up for 2026 okay guys you know the drill mind yourself mind each other and mind the planet Karabaga and sound