Plastic is ruining our environment, and we can do something about it. Now.
Martin Dorey, founder of the anti-plastic movement and #2minutebeachclean, is the expert when it comes to understanding the impact plastics have on our planet.
This book shows you what you can do to help. Starting today, with just 2 minutes of your time.
Open this book with your children, give it to your friends. Spread the word. With its smart, surprising and simple solutions, we can all make a genuine difference.
‘We could actually do something about plastic right now’ David Attenborough.
Together we can fix this.
#2minutesolution
Any references to ‘writing in this book’ refer to the original printed version. Readers should write on a separate piece of paper in these instances.
Martin is a writer, surfer and beach lover. He founded the Beach Clean Network with Tab Parry in 2009 and started the #2minutebeachclean hashtag in 2013 after North Atlantic storms left UK beaches littered with plastic rubbish. It’s a simple, effective idea – pick up beach litter for 2 minutes, bag it, tag it, bin it – and the hashtag has been used many thousands of time around the world.
No.More.Plastic. continues the clean-up beyond our beaches with a #2minutesolution for everyone.
Martin is also the author of the bestselling series The Camper Van Cookbook, The Camper Van Bible and The Camper Van Coast and presented the BBC 2 show called One Man and his Campervan.
He lives in Bude, Cornwall.
This is for the barefoot family of #2minutebeachclean warriors.
And anyone, anywhere, who ever went out of their way to pick up litter.
Heroes, one and all.
Rock, scissors, paper. Rock, scissors, paper … plastic.
When we were kids we’d sometimes add dynamite, the killer trump, but plastic, that was the material, the tool, the toxin to beat them all. And now, at last, we all know that’s true, so there is no escaping the job of reducing, re-using and recycling and we must get on with it. And, if you need a push, read on.
I like Martin Dorey. He’s a nice bloke but what makes him special is that he’s also a real doer. I also like simple ideas that work like his #2minutebeachclean and, thankfully, so do thousands of other people because together they have harvested tonnes of plastic waste from our beaches. It’s an ambitious initiative that’s all about connecting with people, being reasonable about their capabilities and making them a part of something positive. Beach cleaning is a cure, it helps sort out the mess we’ve already made. But wouldn’t it be much easier if we prevented making the mess in the first place?
What we need is the simplicity of the #2minutebeachclean, something that we can all do, without too much pain or cost in our everyday lives, which will really make a difference …
It’s here, in these pages: the #2minutesolution. I read it yesterday and I’ve done three things today and that’s testament to Martin’s brilliant vision and ideas. Now it’s your turn!
Chris Packham
(A man with a new water purifier, packaging-free onions and degradable dog-poo bags)
THIS BOOK IS also about plastic and the massive problems we are facing with plastic pollution.
The reason it’s about you is because you are the one person in the world that you inhabit who can make a difference. You really are.
I guess you already know we face a big problem from plastic pollution. We are drowning in the stuff. Our oceans are choking. Birds, fish, cetaceans and marine mammals are dying in their hundreds of thousands each year because of plastic. It strangles and entangles them or they mistake toxic broken fragments of it for food and die: miserably, starving to death with full stomachs. The legacy of almost 100 years of out-of-control plastic production is coming back to bite us. And now, suddenly, we are waking up to it.
Don’t worry – if you think I am going to tell you off for using plastic in your everyday life, I’m not. Quite the opposite, in fact, because I am going to thank you for every little bit you do.
Plastic is a wonder material with all kinds of brilliant uses. But we need to use less of it, use it more wisely and stop letting it pollute our oceans.
We might look to inspiring individuals or memes on Facebook to solve the problem for us, but they can only do so much. Sharing their stories might spread the word and make you feel like you did your bit, but it is not enough to make real change happen.
It’s the same with governments or corporations. They are concerned with business and the business of being popular, with little appetite to act decisively, especially if it means passing unpopular laws or damaging the bottom line.
The solution, therefore, is down to you and me.
So this book is about what you can do to make a difference, why it matters, and how it won’t take you a lifetime to do it. In its pages you’ll find ideas for reducing your plastic consumption. Each idea takes the form of a #2minutesolution – a simple, easy way to give up plastic. While each #2minutesolution might be nothing in itself, they all add up. A #2minutesolution will take you no time at all – 2 minutes! – and yet will be a step towards making a meaningful difference to the world.
I’ll also tell you about a few inspiring ideas that have spread to such an extent that they are already making a huge difference. They all started with just a spark.
That’s all it takes to light the fire.
Every chapter in this book has a section like this. These are things I’d like you to do or think about. It may be as simple as reassessing the plastic in your life, taking a look at the plastic in your local supermarket or challenging you to pick up plastic for a few minutes, just to see how much you can find. The idea is that each of these will add up. When you get to the end of the book (it won’t take you long) you’ll see how much you can do – without doing much at all!
IN 2009 I moved to a small hamlet near a quiet beach on the north Devon coast. One day I came across an area of the foreshore that was knee deep in plastic bottles. I vowed to do something, anything, to clear it up.
I decided to act and, with my friend and colleague Tab Parry, formed the Beach Clean Network, an organisation that was devoted to putting beach clean organisers in touch with volunteers.
Later, in 2013, after a series of fierce Atlantic storms, I was completely overwhelmed by the plastic the ocean spewed up on the beach. I knew I could never pick it all up alone, so I turned to social media for help, creating the first hashtagged #2minutebeachclean post. The idea was to try to inspire people to do the same – pick up litter for 2 minutes –so that it became a part of life. In the beginning I figured that if I inspired just one other person to do the same, then it would double my efforts – and that would be a win!
Since then the idea has blossomed and people have responded in their thousands. Each week around 145,000 people look at the @2minutebeachclean Instagram account, while stats tell us we often get over 150,000 views of our tweets each day. In the week John John Florence (WSL world champion surfer) posted about us, over 350,000 people looked at our Instagram account.