California is known for a few key things: the weather, the Kardashians, and the surfing. But California surfers are taking on a whole new persona as activists.
Every year, millions of tons of plastic waste are generated by consumers in the United States alone. While some of this waste is recycled, most of it ends up in landfills or out in the environment. A study released in February, led by University of Georgia environmental engineer Jenna Jambeck, claims that 8 million tons of these plastics are ending up in our oceans annually. However, organizations like the Surfrider Foundation think the key to getting consumers to care about the ocean environment is by making things personal.
The Problem
The Environmental Protection Agency’s Municipal Solid Waste Report outlines how much trash is produced, and how much is recovered each year. The most recent report includes data from 1960 to 2012. While during this period the percentage of recovered waste (waste that isn’t sent to the landfill or left in the environment) has increased dramatically from around 6.4% in 1960 to about 34.5% in 2012, the majority of trash isn’t recycled. Unfortunately for the environment, not all of it ends up in the landfills either. One of the worst culprits when it comes to solid waste is plastics. Durable plastics (plastic products made of PVC, polyethylene terephthalate, and other resins) make up over 11 million tons of generated waste each year. Only 6.7% of this waste is recovered, leaving the remaining 10 million tons to slowly degrade in landfills, or to coat beaches along ocean coasts.
Not all litter is created equal, though. Not only do landfills slow the biodegradation process, but every material has a different decomposition rate in the environment to begin with. So, according to the US National Park Service, while it takes a newspaper 6 weeks or so to naturally decompose, it takes a plastic bottle up to 450 years.
So how do these millions of tons of trash end up in the ocean and on the beach? Senior oceans specialist at Environmental Defense Fund, Jeff Young, says there are two main causes: urban runoff, and beachgoer litter.
The Challenge
When it comes to tackling these numbers, the challenge that most environmentalists cite is engagement. Caught in the chaos of city life, it’s easy to forget that every soda bottle, every takeout box, and every old magazine has an impact.
Young, who moonlights as Surfrider San Francisco’s vice chair, says that one of the biggest challenges that any kind of conservation effort faces is that people don’t realize the negative impacts of their actions.
“That would be the high level challenge that we see in any environmental challenge; the lack of connection,” Young said.
He thinks that in order to get people excited about preventing pollution and cleaning up oceans, people need to first reawaken their connection with their environments; and that’s where a coolkid sport like surfing comes in.
The Solution
While any environmentalist would tell you that education and awareness are the foundation for change, activists like Young and the Surfrider Foundation take that mantra a step further.
“Our biggest value is using surf culture and lifestyle as a platform, to connect people to the environment,” Young said.
The Surfrider Foundation’s published mission is “the protection and enjoyment of oceans, waves, and beaches through a powerful activist network.” With local chapters all over the country and the world, the foundation organizes events like beach cleanups, gardening classes, music outreach, and more in hopes of rekindling the relationship between citizens and their environments.
“Just by getting people out there, I think it can really be illuminating,” Young said,.“At a very basic but broad level, that’s what Surfrider aims to do; to really engage people from in the community.”
Just this April, San Francisco’s Surfrider Foundation chapter organized an Earth Day beach cleanup that brought in 407 volunteers who collected 1,300 pounds of trash.
“In-person events, where you’re actually connecting people face-to-face with the environment, can bring about the most change,” Young said.
Young, and other activists like him, continue to cite this connection as the most prolific way to incite environmental action. Getting consumers into their environments, not just as stewards but as users, is one way that emotional connection can lead to environmental conservation.
“All the work that we do is volunteer based,” Young said of the Surfrider Foundation, “so the real question is what’s driving it.”
Raja Badreldin is a surfboard shaper out of Redwood City, CA, with a similar state of mind. In addition to making surfboards as hobby, Badreldin said that surfing itself has helped him better understand nature and the fragility of the ocean environment. The unique relationship that surfing creates between users and the ocean is a major reason he began shaping boards himself.
“You’re cold, and you’re sort of upset about being so cold, but then the sun rises and you’re like ‘okay, that’s why I’m here,’” Badreldin said about the process.
“I think everyone is born with this mindfulness, but as we live our lives in our society or in our developed cities, all these other things distract you from that, from your real connection with nature and the value of nature, but in an experience like surfing, you’re able to rediscover that,” Young said.
Though interest in outdoor recreation, andsurfing specifically, has been on the rise over the past decade and beyond, that doesn’t mean that activism through recreation isn’t without its drawbacks.
The Drawbacks
Rekindling participants’ relationships with the ocean is one major benefit of surfing that can lead to stewardship, but that doesn’t mean it’s a waste free endeavor. Surfboards are made with materials much like the durable plastics that make up soda bottles and plastic bags. These resinbased epoxies and foams are anything but ecofriendly.
“That’s always in the back of a shaper’s mind too,” said Badreldin, “We’re perpetuating the problem…but that’s changing slowly.” In California especially, almost every board making company has a deeply integrated environmental responsibility policy paired with their mission statement.
“A lot of people are putting effort into different core materials,” Badreldin said.
One of such people is George Rocha, a San Francisco based artist and board shaper whose material of choice is destroyed skateboards that have been tossed.
“We’re all contributing to this trash that’s not going to go anywhere,” Rocha said, “if you just keep trying to find ways that what you own, what you use, you reuse, then you’re saving the planet a little bit at a time.”
Rocha isn’t the only shaper who thinks reuse is imperative. Organizations like Sustainable Surf have projects that use recycled styrofoam to make new surfboard cores. UK company Driftwood Surfboards exclusively makes wooden surfboards “using the most environmentally benign materials available.”
“It’s actually a pretty challenging material science problem,” said Badreldin. “Finding a material that’s better than foam, but more sustainable…but that’s kind of what we need.”
Moving Forward
Though the average surfboard is not exactly a zero waste product, the unique experience that surfing provides is, according to Young, an unparalleled way to get people excited about ocean conservation.
In Young’s words, surfers have a connection with the ocean that they want to honor and that makes them want to give back, so that future generations are able to feel that connection as well.
With over 8 million tons of plastic waste ending up in the oceans every year, activists like Young hope that inspiration and engagement can help solve our plastics problem.
“Glimmers of hope, moving forward, are actually activities like surfing, or any kind of outdoor activity that really kind of reacquaints you with nature.” Young said.
