Travel

Arrifana Surf Lodge recusa o uso de 12,000 garrafas de plástico!

~ Being PALL Plastic A Lot Less ~ 1 Comment

(for English version head here: English version 12,000 bottles)

Em 2008 realizámos uma das primeiras limpezas de praia. Eu achei que seria uma boa ideia lavar todo o plástico e colocar na piscina do Jonny! Agora, passados cerca de seis anos e meio e apesar de achar que este ato foi um pouco louco e gerar uma balbúrdia (que eventualmente acabei por limpar), provou valer a pena…

A minha amiga Sarah, dona do Arrifana Surf Lodge com o seu marido Aldo, passou por nossa casa nessa altura com a sua pequena filha Sierra. Ela olhou para a piscina incrédula.

Existe algo acerca de colocar o plástico a flutuar na água que nos leva a comparar com o plástico que poluí os oceanos. Enquanto segurava a sua filha nos braços, Sarah sentiu que tinha que fazer algo em prol da situação.

Sierra

A Sarah foi para casa e encomendou um termo. Eles costumavam usar garrafas de água de plástico para dar aos clientes e agora têm dois termos que levam para a praia de forma a manter a água bem fresca e copos reutilizáveis que apesar de serem de plástico vão servir para muitos mais anos. Eles também instalaram um sistema de filtragem de água na torneira.

Lessons

Até à data, o Arrifana Surf Lodge já recusou cerca de 12 000 garrafas de plástico, sim, 12 000! Como?

Bem, numa semana eram, em média, utilizadas cerca de 50 garrafas de plástico, admitindo que têm cerca de 10 pessoas que surfam diariamente durante 5 dias (claro que na época baixa não têm 10 pessoas todos os dias, mas no verão podem vir a ter cerca de 20 pessoas por dia). Calculei um valor médio, de cerca de 2000 garrafas de plástico por ano! É muito… Depois de 6 temporadas perfaz um total de 12 000 garrafas! É assustador pensar nestes valores! E não foram só recusadas garrafas de plástico, foram também recusados todos os seus plásticos envolventes.

O que a Sarah não mencionou foi o DINHEIRO. A água em Portugal é barata quando se compra somente uma garrafa. Então e se comprarmos 12 000 garrafas? Uma pequena garrafa custa cerca de 19 cêntimos. Se calcularmos 0,19€ vezes 12 000 dá 2 280€. A quantia de 2 280 euros! Mesmo considerando os termos, os copos e o sistema de filtros, eles pouparam estes anos todos cerca de 1 500€ (os termos custaram 50€ cada um e ainda estão bem fortes, depois de todo o trabalho duro na praia durante 6 temporadas e os filtros custam cerca de 100€ por ano).

Assim sendo, o Arrifana Surf Lodge poupou muito dinheiro, assim como também uma grande quantidade de plástico!

E também há o tempo consumido com o processo. Ir ao supermercado, colocar embalagens de água no carrinho, colocá-las no carro, levá-las para dentro de casa. É tudo a somar. E acho que há muitas melhores coisas para se fazerem na vida do que andar a carregar embalagens de água de um lado para o outro. Tenho a certeza que todos concordam comigo!

Foram também recusadas 12 000 tampas de garrafas nestes 6 anos e meio. Isto é um assunto de vida ou morte para as crias de albatroz, das quais cerca de 200 000 morrem todos os anos na Ilha de Midway no Pacífico, sendo as tampas de garrafa de plástico uma característica comum a todos os animais mortos.

photo Chris Jordon
photo Chris Jordon

As escolas de surf trabalham diretamente com o oceano. Os oceanos fazem parte do seu trabalho e do seu sustento. Colocando agora as crias de albatroz de lado, quem quer ir de férias e surfar ondas cheias de plástico? Imaginem 12 000 garrafas de plástico pelas praias. Não é uma coisa bonita de se ver!

Eu fotografei para escolas de surf durante alguns anos, inclusivamente para a Arrifana Surf Lodge. Plásticos desaguavam aos meus pés quase diariamente. Se a proporção de consumo de plástico continua assim, quando a pequena Sierra tiver a minha idade, quem sabe como se encontrarão os oceanos? Nos seus sete anos de vida, a poluição dos oceanos aumentou dramaticamente.

Mas nós PODEMOS mudar esta maré de poluição de plástico por simplesmente recusar o seu uso. Mesmo que comecemos somente por recusar um produto, como o Arrifana Surf Lodge fez. Depois será mais fácil mudar outras coisas, quando tudo se tornar um hábito. Uma das coisas frustrantes (uma, mas sim, há mais!) sobre a recusa de plástico é que parece fútil à primeira, mas como mostrámos anteriormente, NÃO É!!! E está longe disso!

Lembrem-se sempre, cada recusa acrescenta algo. E este é um número que o Arrifana Surf Lodge se deve certamente orgulhar!

Photography Cassar Photography ©

Obrigado Claudia para tomar o momento de traduzir para mim, mais uma vez!

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Arrifana Surf Lodge refuses 12,000 single use plastic bottles!

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It was on one of our first beach cleans in 2008.  I thought it was a good idea, to take all the plastic we collected, wash it, and dump the lot in Jonny´s swimming pool!

Fast forward six and a half years, and yes, while it might have been a bit mad and made a mess (which I did eventually clean up) it´s proved to be an extremely worthwhile exercise…

(Versão em Português aqui)

Sarah, a friend who owns and runs Arrifana Surf Lodge with her husband Aldo, dropped by with their new daughter Sierra. Sarah looked at the pool in dis-belief.

There was something about seeing the plastic floating in water that put it in to context at what´s happening out in the ocean. Holding her tiny baby in her arms, Sarah felt compelled to do something.

Sarah went home and ordered a water cooler for their guests on the beach. Previously they´d been giving their guests bottles of water in single use plastic – SUPs.

Lessons

They now have two coolers and reusable cups. Which yes, are made from plastic (that´s all Sarah could find at the time) but they have already been going six seasons, and they will be usable for many years to come.  They also had a water filter system fitted to their tap.

In this time, Arrifana Surf Lodge have refused around 12,000 single use plastic bottles. Yes 12,000!!  How?

Well in a week we would probably have to provide around 50 bottles of water for clients. (an average) That figure is worked out if we have 10 people surfing everyday for 5 days. Obviously out of season we don’t always have 10 but in the Summer we can have up to 20 surfing. So in a year I would say 2000 plastic bottles!! GEEEEZZ that’s a lot!! Over 6 years 12,000 bottles! Scary to think about it like that!!

It´s not just the plastic bottles, but the plastic that wraps them they´ve refused.

What Sarah hasn´t mentioned is the MONEY. Water in Portugal is cheap, when you buy a bottle. What about when you buy 12,000 bottles?  A small bottles like this is around 19 cents. Still, 19 cents times 12,000 is 2,280.  That is 2, 280 Euros!  Even taking the coolers, cups, and water filtration into account, they have still saved around €1,500!!  ( the coolers were €50 each, they are still going strong, even after working hard on the beach every day for six seasons. The filter works out €100 a year)

Arrifana Surf Lodge have saved as much money, as they have plastic!

Then there´s the time. Time putting water in a trolly, time getting it out to the car. Time walking it in to the house. It all adds up. There´s better things to do in life than carry water bottles around, I´m sure you´ll agree!

12,000 bottle tops refused. That is a matter of life… or death to Albatross chicks, where in the region of 200,000 chicks die ever year on Midway Island out in the Pacific, bottles tops being an all to common feature in the dead chicks.

Surf Schools work directly with the oceans. The oceans are their livelihood. Albatross chicks asides, who wants to go on holiday and surf in waves full of plastic?  Imagine 12,000 bottles laying on the beach…. Not a pretty sight!

I shot for Surf Schools for a number of years, including Arrifana Surf Lodge. Plastic would wash up at my feet as a daily occurrence.  If our rate of plastic consumptions continues like it is, by the time little Sierra is my age, who knows what the oceans will look like?  In her short seven years, plastic pollution in the oceans has risen dramatically.

But we CAN change the tide of plastic pollution,  by refusing single use plastics. Even if you start with just one product as Arrifana Surf Lodge has. Then it can be easier to change other things, once that´s a habit. One of the frustrating things (one, yes there are a few!) about refusing single use plastic is it often feels futile, but as this clearly shows, over time – it´s NOT.  Far from it!

Remember, every refusal adds up.  This is a number of refusals Arrifana Surf Lodge should be proud of! 

Photography  by Cassar Photography  ©

Ponderings from Portugal

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Aljezur, west Portugal

After five months in Singapore I headed straight back to Portugal.

Getting out of the plane, late morning in Lisbon, I was struck by the freshness of the air.  On the metro from the airport, a guy playing the accordion strolled up the train with a dog on his shoulder, as the metro lifted into the morning sun, I was greeted by the sight of old men working their allotments.  A five hours bus ride later, and nearly 30 hours in total, I arrived into the small village of Aljezur.  I was home.

That evening my friend had cooked, we hangout, it was great to be back.  In the evening the freshness had turned to bitter cold! I had four blankets, a hot water bottle at the ready, a house to myself, I went for a sleep-athon.

The following morning all I could see was fog. As the sun warmed and the fog lifted, I was greeted by the sight of the valley towards Monchique. I was blown away by the beauty of the place. The vastness, the vivid green, the spring flowers, the rolling hills with locals below working with their donkeys.

When you´re somewhere all the time it can be hard to see. Never had the place looked and felt so beautiful.

Room with a view!
Cosy nights
View from outside
Little stroll from th house

If you´ve been following my blog, you´ll know how it was Portugal´s beaches, Aljezur´s in particular, that taught me about plastic pollution.  I would work on some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, with plastic pollution constantly washing up around my feet…

I didn´t blog while I was there, as this time was just a short visit. I barely opened my laptop. I was staying at Analogue Apartments, what use to be my old house but now´s much cosier!  It was lovely to be in Portugal and unplug for a couple of weeks.  I´ve left now, but this is a few things I wanted to talk about.

  • Is it possible to have a cuppa tea with out plastic in Portugal?
  • It was fantastic to attend a big beach clean, rather than arranging one!
  • Plastic bag fee came in a month ago, and it´s working!

I like a cuppa tea. It has to be said. Having been away so long I was meeting friends, I was using a café wi-fi to briefly log in. (In the hope I could quickly log out!)  I was surfing and going to café´s before and after. I was in relaxed mode, what better way is there in Portugal?

After the first couple of cups I noticed a pattern. My tea bags always came single used wrapped in a mini plastic bag?  I thought it was a coincidence, but no. Friend´s, who have just opened a restaurant told me how they are not allowed, by law, to have loose tea. They have to all be individually wrapped – in plastic – or they´ll get fined. Crazy. Especially when you consider Portugal have brought in a fee for plastic bags.  If I were staying I may have researched more, instead I put some T bags in my bag, ordered hot water and left a good tip. That´s the only way I could see around a law, that in my humble opinion, is daft!

Time for tea
Time for tea
single wrapped t-bag

 Beach cleaning

I arranged many beach cleans while I was in Portugal. The first big one was for the Surfrider Ocean Initiatives in 2009, I went on to do it every year after.  Often there would be anywhere up to 70 people come along during the course of the day.

I never actually got to go down to the beach much during these cleans! Instead I was in the car park for hours on end, chatting to people and educating them about plastic pollution.

As much as I enjoyed that, this year attending a beach clean my friend arranged made a nice change. I got to stroll on the beach in the afternoon sun.  Even though they´d been going a couple of hours when I arrived, I also got to see just how much plastic there was on the beach. I wasn´t surprised, it´s always there, but it´s good to be reminded why I keep going.

My friend who arranged this one did it with a student as part of her studies.  She understands and was explaining to me; Cleaning is good, but educating is just as important.

Beach cleaning, yes it´s fantastic, it moves plastic pollution from the tide line and stops it washing back out to sea to be eaten by marine animals, but…

…if all we do is clean, clean is all we´ll ever do.

We need to educate, to educate prevention. During the clean my friend´s husband had an idea, that alone could save 100s of plastic bottles over a season. (and the tops, and the plastic that wraps the plastic bottles.)

I´m not gunna say what it is after the T bag law!  Lets just say, it´s a great idea, and makes this beach clean even more worthwhile.

After an hour and a half’s stroll on the beach, and collecting a bucket of plastic, I headed back up for a chat and then headed home. I left them with a huge and growing pile of plastic on the car park floor to clean up.  I felt bad, but it didn´t last long. This was my time to really experience what is was to attend a beach clean, and I have to say, it´s a lovely and feel good afternoon on the beach with friends!

I´m grateful my friend is carrying the torch, otherwise Monte Clerigo would be a sorry sight, and a heap of plastic would have washed back into the ocean, where it could be ingested by marine animals…

Micro plastics length of shoreline
Hidden plastic
Micro plastics. Nurdles or Mermaids Tears

(I only had my little camera and that ran out of battery while I was there, or I´d of taken more pictures of the posters etc. I was still in relaxed mode!)

Portugal introduces a plastic bag tax of 10 cents, a month ago.

When you think you can get a bottle of wine for €1.90, ten cents is actually quite a bit of money.  I didn´t do masses of research, I´ll be honest. I used the one shop I always use and that was pretty much the only one the whole time I was there. On talking to the lady in the shop, that one shop is using “muito menos” – a lot less plastic bags. It was noticeable, I saw many people with reusable bags and that was what go me wondering what was going on.

I´m reading the money, tax, is going to support nature conservation projects. Lets hope that is the case!  Of course people aren´t happy about it, one manufacturer is saying he´ll double his exports instead… We can only hope more countries join Portugal and they don´t find a market for them.

Produce bags are still being used, as are bread bags, bin bags and all the other types of plastic bags, but still, this is a fantastic start!

Good on Portugal for leading the way!

It was amazing to be back in that beautiful place. Now I have another adventure planned… but I shall be visiting Portugal again soon.