LOVE HEROES – THE BEACH
With ELSK Heroes, we want to pay tribute to those who make a difference. Those who fight for a cause that is worth fighting for. Those who don't just shout, but also put on the work gloves. With ELSK Heroes, we hope to give them a pat on the back and an opportunity to get their message out.
Q&A with Jens from Strandet:
Who are you?
My name is Jens Wilhelm Jørgensen and I am 37 years old. Live in Klitmøller with my wife Rikke and our two children, Ellamai aged 7 and Roland aged 2. In terms of work, I am one half of STRANDET. In addition, I do various consulting tasks for a couple of humanitarian NGOs. In addition to the family, free time is spent on surfing and climbing. We moved to Klitmøller from Copenhagen a little over two years ago, but I am originally from Svendborg.
What is the Beach?
STRANDET is an environmental company in Nørre Vorupør that works to solve the challenges with plastic in our garden. We collect plastic from the beaches in Thy and recycle parts of the collected plastic into new products. We do this both to remove some of the plastic that washes ashore, but also to show that even plastic that has ended up in nature can be recycled and thereby be a valuable resource. In addition to collecting and recycling marine plastic, we also provide information for school classes, consultancy work for companies and municipalities, and work to bring greater focus to better handling of our plastic waste, so that it does not end up in our nature.
Why do you spend your time on the beach?
I think it is important for me to work with something where I also feel that I can help create change and influence some of our global and local challenges in a positive direction.
What do you want with Strandet and what is your dream?
Our dream is that we can help to ensure that plastic does not end up in nature and that we can at the same time help create the changes that are needed, in relation to the way we design, consume and handle our plastic products, so that we do not continue to burden our nature to the extent we do today.
Which environmental challenges do you see as the biggest?
There are a large number of challenges that have major consequences for our climate. But our massive production and consumption of plastic is clearly one of them. Especially also when we are not able to handle our plastic properly, so it ends up in the wrong places and thereby causes even more damage.
Are you positive or pessimistic about the challenges Strandet is fighting against?
I'm probably a born optimist. Otherwise, I also think I would quickly lose my courage.
Top 3-5 tips/tricks from you for the general consumer regarding plastics?
- 1: Never throw waste in nature
- 2: take waste with you that you find when you are in nature
- 3: Sort waste in the home and hand it in for recycling
- 4: Think about what you buy, e.g. avoid single use products
If there was 1 thing you could change from a political/legislative aspect, what would it be?
Right now, it is a huge challenge that new plastic is cheaper than recycled plastic. So, in the short term, a tax on new plastic or subsidies for companies that produce in recycled plastic. It would also like to be a requirement that we were not allowed to export waste out of the country, so that we were forced to handle it better.
What is the biggest common misconception(s) people have?
Something we experience a lot is that in many places plastic products are replaced by products in other packaging. The problem is that much of this packaging cannot be recycled or requires separate sorting. So in that way you end up replacing a product that can actually be recycled with something that cannot. Instead, we must look at how we can make it easy to collect and recycle what we already have.