Surfrider Foundation Europe is a Non-Governmental Organisation (Association under the Law of 1901) dedicated to the protection and enhancement of the coastal environment. Its aim is the “defence, preservation, enhancement and sustainable management of the sea, the beaches, the waves and the population that enjoys it”.

Thanks to its paid Co-ordinators throughout Europe, its network of volunteer outposts (of which there are nearly 50) and more than 1000 volunteers, Surfrider has been able to implement various environmental protection initiatives.

These include the “Ocean Initiatives”, a worldwide campaign of raising awareness of the existence of macro-waste (waste of human origin present in the environment) accompanied by a clean-up campaign for the beaches and shores that is held annually. Local residents, clubs and other associations are invited to run their own clean-ups and consciousness-raising initiatives, with help of Surfrider hardware and software. With more than 800 “Ocean Initiatives” operations being held simultaneously in 2010, this means that several hundreds of cubic metres of macro-waste has been removed from beaches, thus serving to maintain awareness of the issue for the whole of society.

The awareness-raising campaigns led by Surfrider are also held on a more local scale, for instance, running environmental awareness operations with employees of companies such as Electrolux. The litter collection operation, in connection with the Vac from the Sea project, lasted for about two hours and nearly a cubic metre of macro-waste was removed. Seventy per cent of it consisted of plastic.

Benjamin van Hoorebeke, responsible for education at Surfrider Foundation Europe, explains the aim of this type of operation:

“Bringing the employees of a company such as Electrolux out into the field is vital for sensitizing them to the problem of macro-waste. They are thus able to see for themselves the extent of the pollution, encouraging them to improve the way they behave every day in their personal and working lives. This action, which is more than curative, finds its real usefulness in teaching ecologically responsible behaviour, so as to reduce pollution before it happens, rather than deal with the consequences thereafter.”

Earlier this year, Osaka University unveiled a recycling robot that uses lasers to sort different types of plastics. Most plastics are recyclable, but only 6 % end up in recycling bins. PET and PS are recycled but their production rates are low – 5 and 7.6% of the total plastic production, respectively. PE and PP have not been recycled as they are not distinguishable by eye, though their production rates are the highest; 23 and 22%, respectively. The recycling robot has laser “eyes” and sensors that can distinguish between six different types of plastics for easier recycling.

It is expected to reduce CO2 emission greatly by paving the way for recycling many kinds of plastics. The recycling robot won’t be in a home soon (it costs $55,000), but Osaka University researchers hope to produce a smaller version that would fit into an ordinary kitchen, close to the recycling and compost bins. The robot is designed by IDEC, the Photonics Advanced Research Center, and Mitsubishi Electric Engineering and the whole project is supported by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan.

Source: Osaka University, Japan.

“Sometimes beauty can be a call to action. Here, the call to action is to follow some simple rules of planetary housekeeping, but in a larger sense the call to action is to follow the strange voices of inspiration, of compulsion, for the real opposite of beauty is indifference.”

For the past decade Judith Selby Lang and Richard Lang have collected over two tons of plastic trash from a single beach along Point Reyes National Seashore. By transforming plastic debris into works of art, the artists raise awareness of the sheer variety and ubiquity of plastic trash and its impact on delicate marine ecosystems.

More information about the Langs' work can be found on their website Beach Plastic and blog Plastic Forever.