BEACHCOMBERS - 100 Tons of Plastic Campaign
Kent duo Ollie Jackson and George Hemming get international reinforcements as the challenge to clear 100 Tons of Plastic from our beaches and seas wins social media support
“Jellyfish!!” We’ve all done it. Been swimming in the sea, spotted something that looked like a jellyfish and panicked… only for it to be revealed as a plastic bag.
It won’t have escaped anyone’s notice that plastics are one of the big topics as mankind attempts to work out how the f**k we have messed up the planet this badly. They are probably also the one thing in this whole emergency that us consumers can really try to challenge (not that many of us own oil rigs) – firstly by voting with our wallets. Don’t buy them.
But we also know that plastic making its way into the oceans has become its own epidemic, the evidence of which washes up on our shores constantly.
When we came across the 100 Tons of Plastic (@100tonsofplastic) campaign, we loved the simplicity of the message and the fact that it is something we can all do – pick it up and put it in a bin.
Kentish duo Ollie Jackson and George Hemming started the campaign back in 2018 and quickly saw it reach an audience of plastic-pickers from Miami to Bali.
“We have both live by the seaside and grew up being very interested in everything that has been going on down the beach,” says Ollie. “From when I was a kid up to now, I’ve spent so much time on the beach and we have both noticed more and more plastic. So we thought ‘Let’s do a clean-up!’
“It started off very small. Invited a few people and it got bigger and bigger – and then on social media it just blew up.”
The Instagram account alone has more than 7,000 followers, while partnerships with some huge brands and clean-up crusaders around the globe have helped propel the campaign forward.
“At that time it was quite niche,” says Ollie. “Our aim on social media was to be positive, say ‘OK, so here is the issue with plastic, but here’s what we can do about it’.
“It started getting a lot of exposure and the scale of the events went up. So we started the 100 tons challenge.
“We did a beach-clean and tagged three people doing similar stuff. And that got our following interacting.”
All of a sudden, the account was receiving requests from all over the world, with different groups asking if they could do a beach-clean under the 100 Tons of Plastic banner.
“Like a chain reaction, it just kind of took off,” says Ollie. “We had people talking to us on a more direct level saying ‘We live in Seattle, or New Zealand – can we do a beach clean for you?’ So we then promote them and post it out and add all their weight to our collection.”
“We had people talking to us on a more direct level saying ‘We live in Seattle, or New Zealand – can we do a beach-clean for you?’”
Despite the issue of Covid restricting numbers, the campaign has reached 61 tons of plastic taken from the shores and seas.
Ollie, who also runs Sector 9 Events, admits that it becomes almost addictive to get out for a quick beach-clean as soon as there is time.
“Our biggest beach-clean ever was 956kg in three hours between just six of us,” says Ollie. “The contacts we have made from doing this have been crazy. Like people like Bamboo Brush and other businesses who are starting to recycle it all. It’s a great community, on a global scale.”
While conducting regular beach-cleans is helping them reach their target – as well as cleaning the beaches, obviously – Ollie and George have also spent time raising awareness of the problem in the next generation, working directly with schools.
“We thought we could go into primary schools because that age group is the easiest to influence and eager to listen, because they weren’t ‘too cool’ to listen to us yet!”, he laughs. “We were giving them changes and tips they can make in their day-to-day life that can have a positive impact.
“A lot of it is about the materials they’re buying into. So, watching the materials they’re buying and trying to get their minds away from single-use plastic as much as possible.
“A big one is littering. You really try to get into them that if you see someone littering, say something or tell someone.
“And it started to work. We were getting emails from parents saying ‘Why did we never think about this before? My child is really pushing us!’.”
In one monster beach-clean, 14 schools from across Faversham and Whitstable collected plastic and turned it into artwork that was displayed during a week’s slot at The Horsebridge Arts Centre in Whitstable.
While almost two-thirds of the challenge is complete, it is only the first phase, with Ollie and George eager to set the next tonnage goal. But dealing with the plastic being collected is also very much on their minds.
“The next steps are buying the machinery to recycle the materials,” says Ollie. “We have so much plastic, and it will end up sitting in sacks on the driveway at home. My dad’s like ‘Yeah, it’s great you’re saving the planet and all, but this is my driveway’.
“We’d love to process it and sell it on as a new life, and the money we make from it we could put back into the project. As we expand and get more people involved, it would be good to have the equipment to accompany that.”
The team have recently shot a social media video with US whiskey brand Maker’s Mark, showing off a salvaged wooden barrel found on a beach and turned into a table and bench. But the weirdest thing they’ve found is, well… slippers.
“I know, it doesn’t sound that weird, but we actually found a pair of Star Wars slippers,” says Ollie. “Finding a pair is really, really rare. You always find trainers or boots, but you never find two.”
Now there’s a challenge.
INFO: 100tonsofplastic.org
