Daily Inspiration: Meet Maija Juusola-Fitzpatrick

Today we’d like to introduce you to Maija Juusola-Fitzpatrick.

Hi Maija, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’ve always been passionate about saving the earth, but it wasn’t till I was 14 that I really saw how I could make a difference. I visited this center that rehabilitates sea turtles that have been impacted by plastic pollution, getting hit by boats, etc. I realized how much plastic pollution was impacting marine life so that’s when I started to clean up trash at the beach. Fast forward 3 years, the pandemic started, I couldn’t go to the beach as often as I could so I started cleaning up in my community because if I don’t clean up the trash right outside my house now, I’m going to be cleaning it up on a beach later! Cleaning up all that trash made me want to reduce my own plastic waste. Seeing plastic all over my community and favorite beaches made me realize that others might want to learn how to reduce their waste as well. That’s why I started my social media pages, like my blog, TikTok, and Instagram, to help others reduce waste and to normalize cleaning up trash.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
For the most part, it’s been an amazing journey for me. I love being influential to people and hearing them tell me that they bought a plastic-free product or picked up some litter because of me. Although, some days I feel discouraged because I know all of these people that are taking action, but large corporations are still producing plastic at an enormous rate and continuing to pollute our planet. I keep my head up though because I’ve realized that strong individual action can only lead to change!

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
For my social media pages, I mainly focus on reducing plastic waste and normalizing cleaning up trash. Plastic pollution is definitely my area of expertise! Recently I’ve been working on my #CancelStyrofoam Petition. As I’ve been posting about my petition, over 5,000 people have joined in the fight to cancel styrofoam. I started my hatred for styrofoam when I was 14 cleaning up at my favorite beach and styrofoam beads were scattered all over. Styrofoam is easily breakable, lightweight so it can fly around and end up in waterways, and can have impacts on our health as well. As a society, we have canceled a lot of things, but I feel like we can all get on board to canceling and stopping the use of styrofoam.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
My favorite childhood memories would have to be going to the beach or going to tropical places in general. I’ve always loved the ocean.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sustainablymaija.wordpress.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/sustainablymaija?utm_medium=copy_link
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaijaSustainably/
• Other: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMR6XXBnn/

Image Credits
Frank Fitzpatrick