Imagine you’re walking on a beach. Feel the sand between your toes and the wind in your hair as the seagulls try to determine whether you’ve got anything edible to offer. Now, imagine picking up a plastic bottle cap, an ice cream wrapper, a stray piece of rope and dropping them off in the bin as you leave the beach.
Next-level beach clean-up
Congratulations. You’ve just completed your very own beach clean-up. Not too hard, right? Perhaps even quite enjoyable? That’s what Daan Strang thinks too. For years, Daan has been leaving beaches a little cleaner than he found them, by picking up plastic waste.
Dutch coast
As if that wasn’t cool enough, this August, he took things to the next level. Starting on August 8, Daan cleaned not one, but 23 beaches in three weeks. In total, he litter-picked his way along 260 kilometres of Dutch coastline. That’s right, he did it in the Netherlands. Where summer doesn’t always equal beach weather. #commitment
As a company on an ocean-saving mission, we’re suckers for a good beach clean-up. After all, any plastic picked up from the beach won’t get the chance to turn into plastic soup. So on the 14th of August our founder Merijn set off to IJmuiden to join Daan for the day. Together with other ocean-saving volunteers, they rid the beach of 133.3 kgs of (plastic) waste.
Merijn: “We’re picking up a lot of small, small pieces of plastic trash. But if all those pieces were to end up in the sea, they would cause big damage to the environment.”
Merijn Everaarts ''We’re picking up a lot of small, small pieces of plastic trash. But if all those pieces were to end up in the sea, they would cause big damage to the environment.”
What kind of things Daan usually finds on the beach? “It depends on what washes up and how strong the wind has been. Recently, I found a 110-kg ship rope. Not the easiest to get off the beach.” Generally speaking though, his haul mostly consists of small pieces of plastic, cigarette buds, single-use plastic bottles and fishing waste like nets, gloves and shoes. In short: a lot of stuff that has no business being on the beach.
That’s why Daan believes in a combination of adjusting our production and consumption habits, and cleaning up what’s already out there. “Call it trashpacking, plogging, litter picking, beach clean-up, or just cleaning up litter during a walk: these are all concepts that make the world a little bit more beautiful and that is the goal.”
Plogging? Where have you heard that term before? Perhaps on one of our social channels where we introduced Paul, a plogger, Dopper Wave ambassador and all-round great person. If you didn’t get to meet him yet and are curious about his plogging advice, watch his 58-second mini documentary.
For one thing, you can pick up some litter next time you’re at the beach. But wouldn’t it be great if you could not only help pick up plastic waste, but prevent it from being there in the first place? Yes, it would. And you can. By choosing to drink tap water and always bringing your own reusable water bottle. In fact, there’s a global community of people – like Paul, Daan and many more - who have all promised to do just that. Together, they form the Dopper Wave.
Want to know more or get involved? Simply click here.