Rachel Yates - Plastic Free Communities Project Officer

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Oh gosh! Questions like this always make me feel awkward. I think sometimes it’s easiest to just pick the things we’re expected to; my 20 year career in broadcast journalism/production, leading Penzance to become the first community to achieve SAS Plastic Free status, renovating a 200 year old cottage, bringing up my kids on my own. And I am proud of those things. But sometimes the biggest achievements are in the smallest things…still being able to make my two teenagers smile when they’re determined not to, making a REALLY good pudding, sometimes getting out of bed and through the day is an achievement! I read a quote the other day that said: ‘you gave your life to become the person you are right now. Was it worth it?’ That’s the real achievement, I think. Being able to sit in your life right here and now and say…it’s been worth it so far!

 What motivates you to do what you do?

It’s really hard to put it into words. I get these pulls to do things that I just can’t ignore! Sometimes my head is screaming ‘No!’ at me for all sorts of sensible reasons, but I just end up following the call. I know I’m on the money when what I’m doing fuels, inspires and teaches me. It’s really important to me to know that I’m using my skills and energy in a positive and meaningful way. Seeing positive outcomes really inspires me too, again the little things…an email saying thank you or an action that’s had brilliant knock-on benefits that weren’t expected. I believe wholeheartedly that we have the power to bring about positive change and I believe people deserve to feel empowered, valued and heard. But most things come back to the ocean for me, and the beautiful planet it supports. We are blessed to have this amazing home, I want to honour that.

What do you owe your mother?

A love of reading. She introduced me to the Brontës, Miles Franklin, Louisa May Allcott … and looking back I now see that she was bringing strong female role models and authors into my life. She aspired high for me and, while that had its pressures too, I was loved, believed in and encouraged. I feel like she wanted me to break the ‘glass ceiling’ and take the opportunities that she didn’t have or didn’t take. She also made me practice piano every day, which didn’t always sit well! But I ended up taking my Grade 8 and all that practice means I can still knock out a half decent tune today. When I moved back to Penzance she gave me the piano I’d played since I was six years old. It’s very special to me and one day I hope it’ll have pride of place in my own daughter’s home. 

Which women inspire you and why?

How long have you got? A few in no particular order; Barbara Hepworth, Viv Albertine, Sophie Scholl, Rachel Carson, Nina Simone, Jane Fonda, Bethany Hamilton, Virgina Woolf, Ges Wilson, Nimco Ali, a woman I saw in Falmouth once who was rocking it in her later years and I thought ‘I want to be her when I grow up’! I’m continually inspired by the women around me and that I come across in my work and reading. My daughter hugely inspires me, and my circle of friends… all strong, real and powerful women in their own rights. Anyone who isn’t afraid to be who they are and stick two fingers up to how it ‘should be’ when there is a better, kinder and more empowering way gets my vote.

What are you reading?

I tend to have a few books on the go at once; something that supports my work, research, learning and projects; something I can dip in and out of; and an escape route into story. Right now I’m reading and doing the work within Layla F Saad’s ‘Me and White Supremacy’, I’m loving dipping and diving into Katrina Naomi’s latest collection of poems ‘Wild Persistence’ and I’ve also just started ‘The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love’...which is already challenging me in its portrayal of women! Am interested to see how it progresses and what process I go through with it.

What gender barriers have you had to hurdle?

They’re around us all of the time and most of the time we’re so used to it, it’s so engrained, that we don’t notice or we don’t realise until too late. Things that stand out were my instinctive love of surfing and wanting to learn as a teenage girl…but it still being quite a male domain at that time and not having the confidence to brave the line up or the boys. In my early career I faced discrimination as a young mum and had I had the wits, knowledge and confidence I have now, I would have had a case to bring.

Being a single mum with no parenting support has also meant more barriers… and while frustrating and upsetting at times, they are outweighed a hundred times over by knowing that the most important role I’ll ever have is being a mum. And that’s not to be undermined or undervalued either. Attitudes to motherhood in itself are barriers…you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. I’ve tried to walk a fair line down the middle, honouring myself and my aspirations and also my children and their needs. It is far from easy. 

How can the world be made a better place for women?

Education, Education, Education. To coin a phrase! More awareness and teaching around things like how deep-set attitudes are when it comes to gender, as an example. As I mentioned before, sometimes we’re not even aware it’s happening, let alone that we’re inadvertently taking part in perpetuating inequality and control. I’m really interested in particular in how language, semantics and how we choose to communicate perpetuate straight-white-male power.

Add to that; strong female role-models to learn from and strong male role-models for our boys to look up to and see how you can still be a man without the traditional concepts, behaviours and attitudes. You hear of men feeling increasingly ‘emasculated’. I hate that word ‘emasculated’. We need to switch it to ‘upmasculated’ instead maybe, and be positive about the levelling up of power and what benefits that brings men. As women we need to support our men and boys in that too, but with boundaries!

There is a great documentary called 2040 which looks ahead to the future we could build using existing technology and projects to avert the worst of climate breakdown. It’s brilliantly uplifting and one of the stand out moments for me was hearing that the best thing we can do to live in harmony with the planet is educate girls and women. In future I hope to work on environmental projects that do just that.

Describe your perfect day?

Waking to see the sun rise over the Mount (I’m lucky I get to watch it from my bedroom window) and then some yoga or a sea swim before breakfast and a damn good coffee in the garden. Then what? This is hard! I have lots of versions of perfect days! It could be pottering around at home, reading / snoozing in the sun, burying myself in my writing room, heading out to the coast for a surf, paddle or a good stank around the cliffs. Evenings would be back at home cooking up some good veggie food and curling up with a film or catching up with mates over a drink and a fire … with music of course, and that would no doubt end in dancing! I love my friends for that – even if all else fails, we dance.

We've noticed there really aren't many (if any) statues of women around Cornwall - who would you see remembered?

There are lots of women who deserve recognition. I’d love to see Rowena Cade carved in granite … after she painstaking carved out the Minack into the cliffs at Porthcurno. Another sculptor of a different kind whom I adore, and have one of those ‘can’t describe why’ connections to, is Barbara Hepworth. Wow, her statue would be a real opportunity for a female commission and some beautiful work! Suffragist Selina Cooper from Callington also deserves a statue – she was a leading figure in the movement and was one of four women who presented the case for women’s suffrage to Prime Minister Asquith. She was also the first woman to represent the Independent Labour Party. There are so many more I could list – one for every town and village!

Give us a tip?

Always make your bed, draw back the curtains and open the windows on a morning. Clear space, light and air make all the difference.

About Rachel

Rachel Yates was born in Penzance and after 15 years living in various parts of the UK studying and creating a career as a broadcast journalist, she returned to her hometown bring up her two children by the sea.

While continuing to work in radio and digital media her desire to do more for the environment grew, and was sealed by a trip to the Philippines to support schools after Typhoon Haiyan. The sheer scale of marine pollution shocked her and on her return to Cornwall during the Valentine’s Storm of 2014, she was devastated to see the same scenes of plastic pollution on her home beaches. She organised a Surfers Against Sewage beach clean and the rest as they say is history!

In 2017, recognising that we can’t beach clean our way out of the plastic pollution crisis, Rachel signed up to lead Penzance to become a ‘Plastic Free Community’ with SAS, and in December the same year the town became the first to achieve the award, inspiring hundreds of communities across the UK and the rest of the world to take action.

Rachel now leads the national Plastic Free Communities campaign for Surfers Against Sewage, and in her spare time runs Plastic Free Penzance. She set up Sustainable Penzance in December 2019 to build on the success of Plastic Free Penzance and to work collaboratively across the community on wider environmental issues.

In her spare, spare time she works on writing and surf history projects. She is currently curating memories and anecdotes from the legendary Skewjack Surf Village near Sennen, for a book, exhibition and community workshops.