Fishing for Plastic sounded weird but unique. If people usually do fishing activities to get fish, in Amsterdam there is a tour that aims to lure plastic waste scattered on the canals that are there.
The tour was held by Plastic Whale, a professional plastic-fishing company first in the world. The tour was initiated by Marius Smit in 2011 with the aim of clearing the canals in Amsterdam from plastic waste. Currently, the plastic fishing tour has not only been held in Amsterdam but also in Rotterdam.
The idea of an unusual fishing tour Marius gets when he travels around Asia when he was 30 years old. At that time Marius was shocked by the plastic waste pollution he saw so he wanted to make a difference.
On returning from his trip, Marius saw a lot of plastic waste on the Amsterdam canals. He also realized that plastic pollution is not only he encountered in the country alone, but in his own home also face the same problem. Finally, he thought of ways how to solve the problem.
It is reported that the Amsterdam water company estimates there is about 3,500 kg of garbage transported from the Amsterdam waterways each day. Worse yet, the trash is flowing to contaminate the oceans and 80% of the garbage that comes from the sea comes from all the cities in the world. Being aware of the frightening facts made Marius take immediate action to make changes through the Plastic Whale that he founded by making a tour of junk fishing.
The mission of the Plastic Whale unique in this tour is to make the water flow in the world free from plastic and create new value from plastic waste. The activity started in 2011 by making boats of plastic waste. Until now the company has had ten designs of a fleet of boats made of plastic waste from fishing in the canal of Amsterdam. The fleet of boats was then used for a plastic fishing tour.
Plastic Whale also works with LAMA Concept (sustainable product design company) and Vepa (furniture company) to create a design of furniture products collection. The ingredients of the product are obtained from plastic waste from Plastic Whale which is recycled to be used as new products that are useful for human life.
Plastic waste has become a global environmental problem. The problem increases when some people think that plastic is a worthless thing, so it can only be used once and then thrown away. In fact, plastic waste can give a new value that is more valuable if we want to process it.
Plastic Whale is one that proves it. By recycling the waste they get from fishing, they are able to show the audience that plastic is not just rubbish, but a valuable raw material. To prove it, they also made a beautiful plastic boat design recycled plastic which is then used during a plastic fishing tour.
With the tour, the tourists can get a unique and fun experience. While enjoying traveling around the city by boat, they can also make a real contribution to the environmental improvement in the land of the mill.
Based on Plastic Whale’s report on its official website, 146,000 bottles and 2,914 garbage bags have been successfully lured. It is none other than the enthusiastic tourists who also moved to create change and prevent environmental damage.
The more people involved, the greater the positive impact it generates. Cities and the oceans will be increasingly free from plastic waste and can reduce the contribution of carbon emissions that affect the increasingly extreme climate change.
This would also have an impact on people’s awareness to protect the environment. Without awareness from within ourselves, the body will be difficult to move toward improvement. If it’s too far to follow this tour to Amsterdam, you can start a plastic fishing tour in your own neighborhood.
