Hawaii... Sounds good!
'I know, most people associate Hawaii with endlessly long white beaches, and they do exist, but for the beaches to be this way, a large group of people has to clear away plastic every single day.'
Where does all this plastic come from?
'The Hawaiian islands are located between two ocean currents, also called 'gyres'. The north and south are both confronted with plastic soup, the collective term for all kinds of plastic matter in the water. All of this plastic washes ashore. In fact, it builds a layer on the surface of the earth.'
What will you be doing?
'I'll be leaving for the United States on 14 August, to go where the plastic soup was first discovered. I'll be travelling from San Fancisco to Hawaii and Los Angeles. The West Coast and Hawaii are burdened with the North Pacific Garbage Patch, the most researched plastic soup. I'll be talking with scientists and the people who discovered the Patch and will try to visit companies. I want to investigate all aspects of the problem, see what is going on and what is being done to solve the issue. There are start-ups developing all kinds of innovations to fight plastic soup in several ways. I want to inform people about these innovations. On Hawaii, I'll be talking with Nikolai Maximenko. He knows how plastic waste travels the sea. And I'll be talking with Marcus Eriksen, one of world's top researchers who has sailed all seas to examine their levels of plastic waste.'
What will you be doing with all the information you will have gathered?
'I want to make stories and I write a blog. Plastic soup is a universal problem we will all encounter. My aim is to inform people about innovations that could help tackle this problem. I want to capture them on camera and include them in my blog.'
How did you get involved?
'As a journalist, I've been focusing on environmental problems for several years now. For the tv programme Zapp Your Planet, for example, I inform children about sustainability and environmental issues. One of the main problems is plastic soup. I've been part of the Plastic Soup Foundation for six months now and I decided it would be a good idea to embark on this trip. I pay for everything myself. I want to show people the consequences of plastic waste in the water and what governments, companies and other institutes can do to reduce and avoid plastic waste.'
Image: Daniël Poolen on the right.
