Anti Pollution Pirates

(all photos credited to the talented Jake Baggaley and John Summerton)

I don’t normally come on here to talk projects we have underway.. at least I don’t think I do (that wasn’t the aim of this space )… anyway I’ll break this habit for a small minute - this is a post about a project we’ve just completed - but it’s slightly different to normal.

I’m proud of all our work but this was super special. It really boils down to community and the power of people together. If you’ve read my previous posts, you may have seen me pondering the meaning of community and the way I feel like it is something always a little bit out of reach anyhoo… so this was a project that started out as a community.

It was a project 5 years in the making so to speak - and last year after a chance meeting with Hannah from Voited and Lucy from Lephyr at the Sidetracked Elements festival something took off…

The Anti-Pollution Pirates.  (full film here…)

Five years ago,  Matt and I walked along this stretch of coastline in north-west Scotland and experienced a moment of disbelief, that even here, in a place that was cut off from your regular houses, roads, and normal human infrastructure, the beach was covered in, nae embedded with rubbish…rope, plastic, crates, bottles, pegs, more crates, tyres would you believe- everything you could think of. 

Back then we didn’t have the time or means to do anything substantial, but it stayed with us.

So this project grew from that memory.

There is a lot of personal and professional meaning wrapped up for us in this landscape - stories, work, adventures, friendships - it has given us a lot. And I suppose that’s a major element of it – for so long we have been in these wonderful outdoor spaces, dare I say taking these landscapes for granted, so it was about time we gave something back.

We wanted to do something tangible, and for me, having a camera in my hand is simply an extension of how I understand the world. In the same way someone might write down what they see, my instinct is to capture it and to look at things through the lens so I can really notice them. We knew we needed help and so gathered together a small group of friends - creatives, and adventurers, people who care about our natural places and want to look after them.

The idea was simple: one beach, one weekend of deep cleaning and we create along the way - write, cook, ukelele play, photograph, film, swim. We knew we wouldn’t fix the problem, we ain’t under any grand delusionssss here, but what we could do is show up, and get stuck in, and do it again, and again, slowly chipping away.   

We bagged everything up that we could, and thanks to the support of the locals, the rubbish was then boated out for us. There are local endeavours to clean the beaches in these areas but the sheer volume of rubbish being washed up daily into small communities means it’s a Herculean task - it is endless.

For us, this trip is the beginning of an ongoing project. Each year we (as a team) plan to find a new remote beach somewhere along the British coast - and hike in, camp out, and clean what we can. 

WATCH NOW

Whenever I think about the environmental challenges we face I feel overwhelmed and unsure of where to start. But it’s not about perfection, otherwise the idea of starting is too daunting, and it isn’t about preaching, because I for one am far from perfect and I don’t think anything good comes from preaching or whataboutery.

For us it is more about our community and leaving things better than we found it. And coming to realise that environmental action of whatever scale can live side by side with fun, adventure and creativity.

At this point I have to say a huge thank you to VOITED who were fundamental in bringing this project to life and supporting the anti-poulltion pirates (as we have decided to call ourselves, it slipped out one day and it stuck) -  it is a company full of people who really believe in leaving our natural world better than we find it. 

They understood why we wanted totell this story, and they trusted us to do it authentically. And supported us every step of the way. We’re incredibly grateful for that trust, and for everyone who gave their time and their hands to the project 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

With a big smooshy hug to Matt, Jenny, Maleek, Wim, Jake, John, Wynter & Lola and the Voited team 💚

Sent from my iPhone