Rachel Yates

I was born and brought up in Penzance and my love for West Penwith stems from my love of the ocean; being in it, on it or near it. Having an upbringing in such a beautiful place also sparked my desire to do what I can through my everyday life to protect the environment. I started off pretty young; my first campaign was putting up posters around my school warning against aerosols containing CFCs!

I moved away from Cornwall to study at Newcastle Uni and after completing my post grad, I worked as a broadcast journalist and producer for the BBC, before moving back to Cornwall in 2008 with two gorgeous (I’m biased!) kids in tow.

While continuing to work in radio and digital media, my desire to do more for the environment grew and was cemented by a trip to the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan, to help the clear-up effort. The sheer scale of marine litter shocked me and on my return to Cornwall in Feb 2014, during the Valentine’s Storm, I was devastated to see the same scenes of plastic pollution on my home beaches. I organised an SAS beach clean and the rest, as they say, is history!

Within a year I was an SAS Regional Rep and in 2017 I signed up to be a Community Lead for Plastic Free Communities in Penzance. We were the first town in the UK to be awarded ‘Approved’ status in Dec 2017, just as Blue Planet aired its famous plastics episode.

At the start of 2018 I started freelancing for team SAS to support the rapidly growing national campaign, officially joining as Plastic Free Communities Project Officer in the summer.

I believe if everybody plays their small part we can make a huge difference. I also believe in people; we absolutely have the power to bring about positive change and I love seeing that happen in our communities, every day. I still write and work on story-telling projects, I love to swim, I try to surf but am better at yoga … and most of all, I’m mum.