Interview with the founder of Save The Plastic

During my time out in Indonesia this year, I had the pleasure of meeting one incredible lady, Yanitza grantcharska (known to us as Yana). As the founder of Save The Plastics, Yana has created this non profit organisation in order to inspire local communities and to pass down our love for the ocean onto future generations. Save The Plastic provides expertise to local governments on issues as plastic pollution and waste management. Their Education Outreach Program has been created to be adapted to all audience levels and the environmental data collected provides a baseline for future comparison as this is crucial for long-term sustainable policy planning.

Want to find out more about the Save The Plastic journey... here is our interview with the founder herself.

1. What made you begin the ‘Save The Plastic’ organisation?

I am originally from Varna, a city on the Black Sea, and I had the chance to grow up in Tunisia by the Mediterranean. I have always had an ardent and passionate relationship with the Ocean. Also, I have been raised in a very environmentally friendly family with a great respect for nature.

Slowly I have noticed how single use plastics invaded our shops and everyday life. I can not remember exactly how I found out that plastic was made from petroleum, but I knew it can not be good for the environment. Gradually I assisted to the rise of plastic trash on the beach and in the water but in the past decade it became an outbreak.

As a sociologist and urban planner, I focused all my work on water management and pollution in cities. I have been working in Belgium for couple of years, but I felt too far away from my beloved Ocean.

It’s during 2017 and 2018 that the idea of creating a non-profit association build up and grew after a life changing experience in Hawaii. I spent one year at the university studying Ocean Policy while working with Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii. With its location in the middle of the Great Pacific Gyre, we were witnessing the scars that years of consumerism had left into our Ocean. Not only our beaches were covered by all sizes and colours of plastics but as a marine conservationist I was extremely concerned for all marine life.

The real lungs of our Planet are the Oceans. When we understood everything they do for use, we decided to do something actively to help marine life.

Save The Plastic was founded to inspire local communities and pass down our love for the Ocean to future generations. Today Save The Plastic is organised around 3 main pillars, Education, Data Collection and Local authorities support.

2. How long have you been diving and what first hand changes have you seen over the years?

I’ve started diving in Fuerteventura, Spain in 2009 and since then the underwater world took over my life. In 2013 I started volunteering for a Marine Conservation Program in Thailand. There I learned everything about coral reefs and marine life as well as how to perform ecological surveys, ecological monitoring, coral disease assessments, artificial reef deployment and monitoring, and much more. Today I became a Marine Conservation Instructor as well. Over the years, I could witness not only the divesting effects of climate change on coral health but also the increase of plastic waste ending up into the ocean. In that pas 13 years humans have produces half of the plastic ever produced. In the meantime, we haven’t improved at all our waste management systems. More plastic waste produced on land leads to more plastic into waterways inevitably.

3. What kind of data do you collect (shore/ ocean based)?

In order to perform the most detailed and accurate assessment of the Marine Plastic Pollution in different locations, we are performing several surveys. We try to cover the full spectrum from land to the underwater world.

First, we will organise beach surveys along the same 500m transect line at least 30 times, that trash will be weighted, separated in 15 different categories and then counted. Then we perform microplastics surface water surveys in cooperation with the 5 Gyres Institute. We have been using their Manta Trawl and protocol for more than 2 years. And for the underwater survey we are working with Indigo V Expedition. With their device the OSMO, we are filtering 100l of ocean water at different deaths in order to measure the microplastic pollution level and distribution in the water column.

All our data are collected following citizen science protocols. We believe that it is crucial to involve citizens in order to raise awareness and that those workshops are a life changing experience for many.

4. What places are you collecting data from and why?

Today we have two locations in South East Asia where we are performing a Marine Plastic Pollution Assessment. The first one is in the Gulf of Thailand around Koh Tao and the second one is in Indonesia around Nusa Penida and Gili.

We chose those locations because we found very conscious and strong marine conservation programs as partners. Our work and all those data collections require an important number of volunteers and a boat. Besides, those both locations have very different marine and geographical features and it’s interesting to compare their results.

5. What is the most frequently found plastic you have seen?

The plastic waste found on our different locations is very different. The main item we find is plastic packaging. Here are some numbers on both locations: (following same protocol).

For Koh Tao Thailand we have performed 31 beach cleanups and collected 355,9km of plastic of which 30% is fishing gears/ropes.

Top 5 items:

Plastic Packaging 4501

Plastic bags 3565

Straws 1080

Cigarettes butts 1043

Plastic lids 843

For Nusa Penida we have performed 29 beach cleanups, collected 2078km of which 53% are fishing nets and gear.

Top 5 items:

Plastic Packaging 12315

Random 8174 (divers pieces of plastic broken from a bigger item that we can not identify)

Foam 4284

Cigarette butts 3841

Plastic Bottles 2287

6. Why is plastic the most threatening form of waste we find?

Plastic is the most pervasive and long-lasting form of pollution. It’s irrational to use a non-renewable resource for some items which will be used once or for a short fraction of time. At every stage of its life cycle production, use and waste management, plastic will have a highly toxic impact on the environment and human health. We only start to understand its consequences now.

Plastic doesn’t disappear, it will break up into smaller and smaller pieces impossible to notice with a necked eye but will still remain in the environment. Plastic photodegrades with UV light and wave motions. Those extremely small plastic particles can go through all kind of membranes in our bodies. The same goes for animals. Plastic is a very active material which will interact with its environment by leaching chemicals and absorbing all POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutant as PCBs, DDT, …) from waters around. Those chemicals are known to have carcinogenic impacts and most of them are endocrine disruptors with a dramatic impact on the reproduction systems.

Another huge impact of those micro / nano plastic is on the producers of our Ocean, at the bottom of the food chain. The ingestion of nano particles by phytoplankton and zooplankton has crucial repercussion on the Oxygen productivity of our Ocean. More than half of the oxygen we breath comes from the Ocean…

While we can not see most of the plastic pollution in our Ocean, the big pieces of plastic will have a tragic impact on the survival of all marine life after ingestion or entanglement. Animals will not be able to perform their feeding habits (too buoyant, sensation of being full) and they will starve to death.

(I could write you pages in this section)

7. What will the data you collect from your beach cleans be used for? If you could give any advice to our listeners what would it be?

All the data we are collecting are part of the Marine Plastic Pollution Assessment we are performing for the islands. Those data will be transmitted to local authorities in a detailed report with some specific and realistic policy recommendations / actions easy to implement in order to reduce plastic pollution. This study gives us a baseline for future surveys. If a policy gets implemented, we could measure its efficiency and impact over time.

We would like to publish a research paper comparing different locations, ocean currents and country policies as well.

As a consumer is essential to keep in mind that we all have power to act and that we all have responsibilities as well. We all can do something to help the situation. Don’t start by changing everything at once because it’s overwhelming. Start one step, one change in a habit at a time. Start by the easy things as a reusable water bottle, a coffee mug and a reusable bag. If you eat a lot outside or have take-aways carry a reusable straw, utensils and a box in your bag, nowadays you can find foldable once easy to put in a hand bag.

If you hear about a city or beach cleanup, join your community and enjoy the fresh air surrounded by mindful people.

If you feel you want to go further, you can start by trying to reduce packaging while grocery shopping, also buy local and seasonal products. Furthermore, you can try to find out where you waste goes, how are your local authorities managing the waste in your region, country. It will give you a better understanding of how your government is addressing this question.

And don’t forget Clean Ocean starts at home.

8. How would donations support the ‘Save The Plastic’ organisation?

Donations to Save The Plastic will support different activities initiated on the ground as well as some operating costs in order to guarantee a smoothly implementation.

Activities includes future Environmental Education presentation in elementary, junior high schools and high schools as well as workshops to collect data with students from high schools. We want to involve students in citizen science data collection exercise in order to show them what science could look like.

Besides we organise diverse talks, movie nights and workshops for general public.

Operating coast could consist of Indonesian Research Permit procedure fees, conference fees, few essential equipment and some travel coast between islands.