Taking action for climate change by surfing
thank you
thank you
[Applause]
what have i gotten myself into
what have i gotten myself into you know
that feeling
you know that feeling it’s the feeling
you get when you
take on a challenge which at the start
seems
way too big for you it’s like you know
after the christmas holidays
you’ve gained some weight you start
running in january you know and after
one kilometer you’re like
what have i got to myself into or it’s
that ikea cupboard you want to
piece together on your own
and the manual said you knew two people
to put it together see you falling apart
what have i got to myself into now i can
get that feeling and i had that feeling
last week walking back
from my local supermarket oh sorry
walking back from my local local
supermarket now
you might think i’m a bit weird by
telling you this but i get that feeling
when i walk down the street and i see
plastic bottles
plastic bags candy wrappers
laying out in the street we are
plasticizing
our earth we are plasticizing our earth
now i know there’s been this great surge
in awareness
around plastic pollution we all know it
the harms and effects
we have all these cleanups going on
everywhere
but does it change anything did you
realize by actually helping
where it might be helping those
companies putting out that plastic
on the market in the first place we are
aiding them we
are keeping them in the shadows by
cleaning up
they don’t have to change as long as we
clean up
that’s what i’m thinking about when i
walk down the streets and i see
that plastic litter laying there and i
think
to myself i’ve been working on fighting
plastic pollution for
the last few years but despite all my
effort
is it worth it what have i gotten myself
into
my name is i’m the plastic
soup surfer and i build boards from
plastic waste
and i use those boards for expeditions
and campaigns now i’ve been surfing
since i was eight years old
and um in six years ago i built my first
board from
plastic waste which was washed up on the
beach of my local my local surf beach
and i built this board and it was it was
about awareness this project i surfed
that board 350 kilometers down the dutch
coast
350 kilometers
and something happened those three days
of surfing
i started off as a surfer making a
statement on a board made from plastic
waste
and i got off three days later as an
activist
as the plastic soup surfer
two years later i built this board
a board made with 60
plastic bottles did you know these types
these like half liter plastic bottles
are littered in the netherlands up to 35
million
each year 35 million of these small
plastic bottles littered
every year which is a hundred thousand
in our streets
in our parks in our waterways one
hundred thousand each day
when well there’s a solution to this to
stop this
littering and it’s called bottle
deposits
bottle deposits you pay a little extra
when you get your bottle
15 cents and then you return it to the
store
you get your 15 cents back has nothing
to do with awareness
you just want your money back 15 cents i
want my money back
i think it’s a great idea so i built
this board
and all that board i surfed
from scheveningen all the way to england
200 kilometers a record attempt
but i did not do that because i wanted
a line in the guinness book of world
records i did that
because i wanted deposits on these small
plastic bottles and this was the kickoff
to a petition a petition which asked
deposits and i got 55 000 signatures
because of that kickoff to that campaign
and for those wondering i never got that
line in the guinness book of world
records i did get
that what did i get myself into a moment
somewhere in the middle of the north sea
and we did manage to get to the other
side as you just saw but
uh it was very different from then we
had planned
now fast forward a few months
up one back yeah fast forward
i’m in my car i’ve got a small red car
got it with me now
55 000 sugar hearts in the trunk
filled stacked and the smell
of these sugar hearts is penetrating the
car and i have to actually roll down the
window well actually bust down the
window
but anyway i have to i have to roll it
down because it’s just so penetrating
and even though it’s very cold outside
it’s february it’s valentine’s day
i have to roll down the window and i’m
bringing these 55 000 sugar hearts
to parliament to the hague
55 000 big heaps and i’m going to give
them to
the politicians over there and this is
basic psychology if you give
if you give something you’re more likely
to get something back so i’m giving them
these sugar hearts and what do i want
from these politicians
i want their signature so i’ve written
my own resolution
just same formal language they do same
form of language
and it’s it has a pros promise it says
we 55
000 people want you to commit to 90
percent
less littered plastic bottles 90
lit less littered plastic bottles
doesn’t say deposits right but everybody
knows 90
less littered bottles can only be
achieved by
deposits and something amazing happens
all these politicians sign my resolution
two days later there’s a big meeting
and my resolution which is then called
the plastic soup server resolution
is actually adopted without vote
and then after that it is used for
policy in the netherlands which we’ll
see deposits only small plastic bottles
next year july that’s what happened
and i’ve had that what do i get myself
into a moment
very very often i’ll show you
i’ve just done my first hour
um what can i say
well what have i gotten myself into
that’s what i’m thinking
so this wasn’t my first this so this
wasn’t my first and it wasn’t my last
what have i got to myself into uh moment
like i showed you i’ve served all the
the entire dutch coast
350 kilometers didn’t finish that uh
i paddled down the entire river right
that was the start of that
i did finish that did get that what did
i get myself into a moment
um i built a surfboard a 3d printed
first in the world 3d
printed windsurf board from recycled
plastic
in 2018 and windsurf that from france
back
didn’t make that either
so i know those moments of what did i
get myself into
after that we used uh bailiffs
dividers to go up to oh sorry i’ve
missed one
uh video so this is me paddling down
the anterior river ryan 1 000
kilometers we used
that attention to go up to the ceos
of companies like heineken and coca-cola
i used bailiffs to go up to them
we developed judicial instruments like
the formal notice
to offer to them
we together with a very famous
litter picker here in the netherlands we
had we went up to swedes wrappers
sweet companies like antaflu and we had
them change their wrappers from plastic
to wax paper just last winter
we had the entire reed dutch retail and
wholesale
stop and recall all
plastics all fireworks with plastics
and it’s being discussed in brussels at
the moment just last week we had the
entire retail
ban water water balloons and plastic
confetti just last week
and you might think
i don’t blame you for thinking maybe
these are very small steps
if you’re talking about plastic
pollution
in the global scale and they are they
are they are small steps
but they are big steps in the heads of
the ceos
this is stopping plastic pollution at
the source
these ceos these people in charge
they are making different decisions
because awareness yes of course it’s
important but i’ll tell you why it’s
important awareness
awareness is important to increase
societal pressure
awareness is important to have ceos
and politicians get the feeling that the
measures they
take are popular that’s why awareness is
important but awareness as such
it isn’t it doesn’t change a thing
sorry because why because we are stuck
we are stuck in a throwaway society
plastic is the catalyst to this
throwaway
society plastic is always the easiest
cheapest choice if you leave it up to
the consumer
they will always choose the easiest and
and the
cheapest choice you leave it to the
responsibility
of the consumer things don’t change just
think
about covid as a parallel
what we need to do is we need to focus
we need to unite and we need to change
those in charge in my last project
i just came back from paddling down uh
the netherlands
from maastricht to scream ago 550
kilometers
and i visited all these schools and i
asked these schools
all these pupils in the classrooms to go
to their mayors to the local mayors
and ask him for separate plastic waste
collection in their classrooms
and i hope by doing so that these kids
these pupils will get that experience
of talking to somebody in charge and
having them change
so what happens when you talk to those
in charge what happens well
there’s this world famous civil rights
activist
mahatma gandhi you probably know him and
he taught us
they will ignore you they will laugh at
you
they will fight you right and there’s
this unknown dutch activist who says
you will get that what have i gotten
myself into
moment afterwards so how do you fight
that
how do you get the strength to carry on
how do you make sure that frustration
and anger
doesn’t burn you out for me and i guess
it’s for everybody
it’s about staying positive it’s about
having fun
for me that’s surfing i always feel
privileged when i’m on my surfboard and
i have my team
around me helping me out i feel
privileged that i can be there i feel
privileged because i
love the physical challenge i love
creating brainstorming with them around
our next campaigns
but what really keeps me going is the
support
of so many the feeling that we are
making
a change that is my real drive my real
goal now
you i i mean i hear you you’re probably
saying well
we can’t all be full-time activists what
can i do what
can i do and i hear you
i guess what can i do well the default
of course and i don’t have to explain
that you know using your own no
littering not using
or taking your own uh plat
bags uh taking reusable cups that’s the
default you all know that
but i’m asking you to take that next
step
that email to that supermarket manager
keep it fun but send that email
sign that petition vote green
share that facebook event but also go to
that facebook event
go to that beach cleanup because
cleaning up is important but make sure
that the results
you show that to those in charge
because we need to change those in
charge to really stop
plastic pollution we need to change our
throwaway society
and they will ignore you they will laugh
at you they’ll fight you you’ll get that
what did i get myself into a moment
and you’ll find the strength to carry on
by working together by uniting
and only that way we will
and we can change those in charge
thank you