Father of two, Tommy Kleyn who runs a company as an illustrator/graphic designer studio since 2010, decided one day, with some of his buddies to do something about the environment near where he lives in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Along with a post that went viral on the social network known as Imgur, this cleanup endeavor turned into an unexpected community effort. We’ll let Tommy tell you the story…
In the spring of 2015, I did a cleanup of a riverbank near where I live. Two of my friends helped me a couple of times. It took us 22 days to clean up about 100 meters (328 feet). Imgur made this project go viral globally.
Because the initial project went viral, the municipal government provided some funds, so I would be able to expand the cleanup. In 2016, I returned to the riverbank with 100 volunteers and we cleaned up 250 meters (820 feet) of riverbank in a single afternoon, collecting some 250 kg (551 lbs) of plastic waste.
I became a dad for the second time in 2017, so no cleanups that year, but on march 24 2018, I organised a third cleanup, the biggest one yet!
Over 300 people helped out this year! For every participant there were a grabber, a t-shirt, a bucket made from 100% recyled plastic (to put in metals and glass), and a roll of garbage bags, also made from 100% recycled plastic. Participants could take those items back home with them, so they could keep their neighbourhood clean.
To cover the costs, I asked companies to sponsor the event. 42 companies participated! Sponsors bought a large beach flag, branded to their company and made from recycled PET. The flags had a larger than usual margin, wich we used to cover the costs of materials and such.
A couple of volunteers wearing their shirts.
Waiting for the kick off-moment.
Part of the riverbank. This time, we cleaned up 1.6 km (1 mile) of riverbank.
We had two places where the materials were handed out to our volunteers. This is the group from point B…
…and this is the group from point A!
Cheering for a picture.
We had a lot of press present, something I’m very proud of. Plastic pollution needs to be brought to the attention of the public, because in the long term, it affects us all.
Young and old attended.
I never asked people to wear the shirts that day. It was more intended as a keepsake for the volunteers. It was pretty amazing to see that so many people put the shirts on right away!
And they’re off!
People went at it fanatically.
So many people.
Typical Dutch scenery.
I was very proud to see that so many companies contributed to make this dream come true!
And a lot of plastic litter was removed.
We had great weather too. In the morning it was pretty overcast, but twenty minutes after the kick off, the sun came out.
We also had a cherry picker made available to us, so we could remove plastic from trees.
And a boat, to go after plastic floating in the water.
This guy. Amazing.
I really love this pic.
It was not possible to take a picture of the entire stretch of riverbank. It goes on behind that green bridge, and starts way behind the back of the photographer.
This was one of the two piles of plastic litter we removed. We kept glass, metal and PET bottles separate for recycling.
We weighed everyones catch.
We ended up removing 1.045 kg (2303 lbs) of plastics that day! Here is the movie from the event which was called called Tijdens Project Schone Schie.
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