Meet Merijn Tinga, a biologist, former teacher, surfer and activist from the Netherlands - also known as the "Plastic Soup Surfer". This is because Merijn turned his passion for surfing into a strong voice for a more sustainable future with plastics. To make his point he started building surfboards from plastic waste and surfed them throughout his many trips that lead him to drive systemic change.
His journey started 10 years ago, when he left his work as a teacher and took a sabbatical leave to go surfing. Without any expectations, he became a visual artist, what taught him the art of campaigning and story telling. His passion for surfing and thereby constant exposure to plastic waste in the ocean raised his concerns and motivated him to actively do something against it. From there on, Merijn decided to combine his passion, motivation and experience to build surfboards and use them for in record-breaking challenges as a way to create awareness and a weapon to influence society, politicians and industries to create change.
In this podcast episode, Merijn shared his amazing journey that among others took him to the EU parliament to initiate policies that are now in place in the Netherlands to reduce PET bottle waste, for example.
You can find out more about Plastics Soup Surfer at https://www.plasticsoupsurfer.org/ or reach out to Merijn via LinkedIn
