Tim Silverwood

I have developed a strange habit, when I see people with a disposable product down by the beach I sometimes stop and watch them, waiting to see if they litter the item or whether they responsibly take it away with them. Most of the time my watching and waiting is in vain and they ‘do the right thing’ but sometimes…sometimes I am called to action. Today was one of those days.

Checking the surf at Blue Bay today I watched an old timer suck the last puff from his cigarette and flick it onto the grass 10m from the beach. For any of you who know Blue Bay you’ll know that this particular ‘patch’ is a social space where young and old check the surf, share stories and catch up for regular arvo brews. It’s as such a cigarette butt minefield. I asked old timer if he always flicks away his butts to which he replied bluntly, “Yeah”. I said to old timer that “That’s a shame because cigarette butts don’t dissolve in the sea and I find myself always picking up the filthy things and I’m not even a smoker!” He muttered something before collecting his board and entering the sea.

Disappointed more than anything I picked up his butt and a few more and thought about what chance we have to motivate our youth to ‘do the right thing’ when old timers behave like that. Moments later I decided that I had to resolve this small challenge, so despite the mushy 1 footers rolling through the Bay, I suited up and went to finish the conversation. I paddled up to old timer and politely asked him if he would consider changing his ways and putting his butts in the bin (after all there was 2 bins within 5m from where he flicked his butt). Old timer immediately arched up and said, “If you like picking them up so much why don’t you just do it!” I said that I really shouldn’t have to to which he replied, “Mate, if I wanted to be preached to today I would have gone to church!” (being Sunday I thought that was a pretty good reply but had one more in the bag). I replied with a doozie, “Well, this is my temple and I don’t appreciate cigarette butts in it!”

In my composed voice I reiterated how disappointed I was to see surfers not respecting the ocean and that we should be the ones caring and doing everything we can to keep our break clean. You could see his mind ticking away despite him wanting to end this sacrilegious conversation as quickly as possible and he muttered, “You’ve got a point, I’ll think about it.”

“I’ll think about it” is hardly a win but it was enough to make me smile and leave him alone for the rest of the surf. There’s some ‘old dogs’ out there that are going to be hard to teach new tricks but I’m not asking him to do a backflip or beg for a Schmacko, I just want him to put his cigarette butts in the bin and maybe, just maybe ask his mates to do the same. I hope you’ll join me.

This post is dedicated to someone who knows cigarette butts better than anyone… Danielle Richardet runs a page called It Starts With Me (view the great blog here) and with her family has spent every day for the last year and a half cleaning her beach, Wrightsville Beach in North Carolina. During that time she has collected 38, 000 cigarette butts. That’s a lot of old timers doing a lot of flicking. Now she’s taking action with the Surfrider Foundation‘s support and asking her local government to ban smoking on the stretch of beach. If you live in the states please fill in the online letter to the Mayor. If you don’t live in the states, kindly ask anyone you see littering their butts to please stop doing it. And then ask them to do a backflip.

This brings me directly to the brand new campaign film my organisation Take 3 has just released. Today it was me fishing cigarette butts from the sand just like Danielle…what will future generations be fishing from the sea? This film asks the question..

Next time you pick up a bottle or can have a little look at the fine print on the back. If you’re in Australia you’ll see a sentence that reads: “10 cent refund at collection depots when sold in S.A.” What’s this all about?

Once upon a time when you bought a soda or a bottle of milk you were obligated to return that bottle once you were done, the bottle BELONGED to the manufacturer. To maximise the returns there was a refundable deposit placed on the item so you WANTED to give them back. Years later corporations evolved to realise life would be so much easier for you if items were disposable. Why worry about the logistics and cost of reclaiming glass bottles to be cleaned and reused when they can simply be thrown away? Enter the aluminium can and plastic PET bottle.

Fast forward to 2011 and we’re using over 12 billion beverage containers every year in Australia to satisfy our desires for a convenient cold drink. The demand for the PET plastic used to satisfy for our appetite for bottled water alone in Australia in 2009/10 meant 52.5 million litres of oil were used. Add to that the fact that we are only recycling approximately 36% of these PET bottles in Australia and you have a pretty serious problem on your hands – millions of discarded bottles ending up in landfill or worse still littered across the landscape – and in our oceans.

I am a huge supporter of the introduction of a Nationwide adoption of a refund on beverage containers as has worked successfully in South Australia since 1976. By simply placing a 10 cent incentive on PET bottles South Australia has been able to achieve a 74% recycling rate, over double the National rate! Whilst the Commonwealth Government takes an eternity to act on this seemingly simple law, surveys have shown up to 82% of Australians agree with its introduction – where’s the democracy in that? As of January 3^rd 2012 the Northern Territory has adopted the cash for containers scheme despite the threats of Coca Cola Ammatil who threatened to take the NT Government to court to prevent its introduction.

Paul Sharp from the Two Hands Project is another big believer in placing an incentive on the return of common litter items. So much so that he believes in placing a refund not only on beverage containers but also on the most littered item globally…the cigarette butt! The team at Two Hands with the help of the Total Environment Centre and Bendigo Bank have managed a radical campaign recently where they are offering a 10 cent refund on bottles, cans AND cigarette butts paid out of their own pocket. Last Sunday I visited their stall at Manly Beach where I was amazed at the enthusiasm of people so eager to pick up other people’s trash to make a little bit of pocket money. I witnessed kids with pockets bulging full of 10-cent coins – amazed at how easy it was to make money on a busy day at the beach. When I spoke to the kids and told them that in South Australia you could make money like this EVERYDAY they almost fainted – a twinkle formed in their eye and they went running to Mum and Dad asking what they could do to make it happen every day. Even parents’ ears pricked up when they realised they wouldn’t have to worry about paying out pocket money anymore.

Photo: twohandsproject.org

For me it’s simple – we NEED legislation to counter the littering of the most prevalent pieces of trash out there including plastic bags, beverage containers and cigarette butts. The industry groups for the corporations insist that that legislation won’t work and that it’s as simple as putting more bins and recycling facilities in public places. They preach that you as a consumer will recycle because it makes you “feel good” so all we need is more recycling bins and it will be problem solved. This spin is designed to continue to make you feel like you are the one responsible for that item once you’re done – not accounting for the fact that it should be THEIR responsibility to dispose of the plastic, not the local council. Placing a refund on beverage containers works all around the world and it’s time we told them to smarten up and support REAL recycling. If people are happy to spend their time picking up used cigarette butts for a 10 cent refund then you can bet an introduction of a 10 cent refund on bottles and cans will lead to a massive reduction in litter Australia wide.

So, what can you do to help the introduction of the Cash For Containers scheme in Australia? Please visit the site for the Boomerang Alliance – an alliance of 18 environmental organisations and groups pushing for the legislation change and quickly write a message to the Environment Minister showing your support.

Check out this great campaign developed by GetUp! showing the lengths Coca Cola Ammatil are going to to prevent the introduction of the legislation.

Interested in this issue? Listen to this one hour Background Briefing report on ABC Radio National from September 2011 titled ‘Money For Empties’

Want to hold a refund event in your area or have any ideas of other stunts we can do to bring awareness to this issue? Any ideas on how to get funding for these events? Contact Tim for more information.

I was so honoured to be asked to give a TEDx talk recently about my voyage to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and about my thoughts on our ‘plastic lives’. The experience of being in my first TEDx talk was amazing, the atmosphere was so electric and it took me days to recover from all the inspiring talks.

Here is the edited version of my talk

A new online petition has been constructed to encourage a ban on single use disposable plastic bags in NSW.

What are your thoughts on plastic bags? Do you think you could live without the ultra-thin plastic bags you get from the supermarket? Personally, I’m a huge fan of the need for a ban on plastic bags among other forms of highly pervasive forms of plastic (beverage bottles, styrofoam) that constitute a large portion of the plastic waste that is entering our waterways and the ocean and negatively impacting innocent wildlife. You might think that you ‘do the right thing’ with your plastic bags and use them as a bin liner or drop them in the recycling bin at the supermarket but the truth is, we are only recycling about 5-10% of the plastic bags we use in Australia. How many do we use in Australia annually?…between 4 and 6 billion!

Please sign the petition here.

You might wonder why we are guessing the exact figure, somewhere between 4 and 6 billion seems like a pretty broad estimate, well that’s because the big supermarket retailers don’t want to tell us exactly how many they’re using. A whistleblower leaked information recently showing the big stores might be accountable for a billion ‘phantom’ bags.

A lot of people ask me what they are going to use as bin liners or to pick up their dogs poo if we get a bag ban. Well, think about it…we didn’t have plastic bags until the 1970′s…what did we do before then? We used alternatives like newspaper or we just washed our bins afterwards. Also, a plastic bag ban is not going to eliminate ALL plastic bags…you’ll still get plastic bags with products like bread and you will still have lots of other plastic bags in your life. A bag ban focusses on the immediate threat which is the ultra-thin checkout plastic bag, the ones that barely even make it home intact without a tear in the side!

Industry groups have tried to stomp their mighty feet and say that banning thin checkout bags only leads to massive increases in the sale of garbage bags and bin liners. My response… “Who cares!” At least if we use these bags to stuff our junk then at least we know they will be weighted down in a landfill and never floating around in the sea. We need to ban thin checkout bags because we use far too many, it’s simply impossible for us to prevent them escaping our clutches and blowing into the ocean when we use 4-6 billion per year.

Please sign the petition here.

The new online petition has been constructed to encourage a ban on single use disposable plastic bags in NSW. This comes as three Australian States and Territories implement thin plastic bag bans. The Northern Territory implemented their ban on 1st September and the ACT commencing their ban on 1st November 2011. South Australia has had a ban in effect since 2009, coupled with their Container Deposit Legislation (CDL) that allows a refundable deposit on beverage containers, they are leading the charge on eliminating persistent and pervasive plastics from entering our environment. Why are our other states lagging?

It seems peculiar to me that we can’t adopt Nationwide policy covering this pervasive form of litter. The writing is on the wall that plastic bags have a very limited future across the globe, even China, Bangladesh and parts of India have banned the hideous and wasteful ultra-thin plastic bag! It is time that we asked our legislators to get this bag ban back on the agenda, after all, our Government under Mr Rudd and Mr Garret assured us of a National rollout in 2008. What happened? The government failed to deliver, leaving South Australia to go it alone and Garret with egg on his face.

Please sign the petition here.

Don’t just wait for our legislators to act, take the pledge today that you will stop using disposable single use plastic items in your life wherever possible.

You can also contact me if you would like to help or download the petition pdf here and gather signatures for us! We want over 10K signatures by the end of Summer!

And if you don’t…well..look out.. the Bag Monster is coming to a beach near you!

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Do you ever think about what life was like when your parents or grandparents grew up? So often I hear anecdotes from older people recounting that life seemed so much simpler, cheaper, way less complicated than today and for all the ups and downs… they agree that times were happier. As a man whose grown through the technological boom, the rise of global communication and an age where convenience is king I should be a firm dispeller of this nonsense talk. I’ve grown through an era where, if anything could be done to make my life any easier, then you can bet an entrepreneur or industry is out there ready to manufacture it and make sure I buy it (or am at least tempted to).

Consumption, desire and an obsession with convenience have led us down a one-way path with no hope of a happy ending for the environment…or us, unless we change, fast!

We have been fed the idea that we can consume and consume and consume as much as we want and when we’re done, we just throw ‘it’ away. We don’t give any thought to where away is or how long it will be there for, we don’t give any thought to the resources it took to make ‘it’, we don’t give any thought to the lives of the people who made ‘it’ and we don’t think about what might happen if ‘it’ escapes into the environment. We don’t think because we don’t know that we’re supposed to think.

Thankfully the world has Annie Leonard and we don’t need to convince everyone to think. We just need to convince the world to watch the ‘Story of Stuff’ and then the thinking will come naturally. I had the chance to meet Annie in Sydney recently and all in attendance would agree, we need more like her. More like Annie to pull the wool off from our eyes and breathe some light into the truth behind our consumption, our mismanagement and our downright stupidity in thinking this current model is sustainable.

Annie has developed a range of incredible short films based on her insight into life as we don’t know it. Please start with the original story here. Once you’re done learning about that stuff, dive deeper to learn about whole lot of other stuff here.

I was lucky enough to be selected to be a feature of this great film project called, ‘One Beach’. The full length version is featured further down the page but here you see an 8 minute short about the organisation I co-founded in 2009, my background and the preparations for the gyre expedition. I hope you like it!

Have you seen One Beach? – A film all about ingenuity, creativity and protecting what we all love so dearly…our ocean. I was lucky enough to be a character in the film, which, was directed by acclaimed surf film maker Jason Baffa (Single Fin Yellow, One California Day).

Watch the film here.