Image: Andy Hughes
With the first Plastic Free Awards taking place in Bristol tonight, we caught up with one of the event’s organisers Hugo Tagholm, chief executive of Surfers Against Sewage.
When Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) was first set up back in the 1990s, it was by like-minded surfers, swimmers and other open-water enthusiasts who were united by a common goal: tackling a chronic sewage issue that was not only damaging our oceans, but also making people ill. Jump forward to today and the organisation has grown into a leading marine conservation charity, inspiring ocean activism all over the world.
From sewage to plastic pollution, SAS has evolved alongside emerging issues and threats to the world’s beaches. Coordinating beach cleans and campaigning both locally and nationally, the charity is leading the plastic-free movement with the help of volunteers. The grassroots nature of SAS has demonstrated “how a growing movement of like-minded people […] can push the people in power to improve water quality,” says chief executive Hugo Tagholm. “Blue Planet 2 was a watershed moment” he explains. “We saw the world wake up to the issues we’d been working on for over a decade.”
With the inaugural Plastic Free Awards taking place in Bristol tonight, when we caught up with Hugo he admitted that he was looking “almost mournfully out at the sea,” as he has had to swap catching waves for event planning in recent weeks. Masterminded by himself, Lucy Siegle and Richard Walker, the Awards will celebrate and recognise the innovations, entrepreneurs, communities and individuals driving the plastic-free movement forward. The team received almost 1,000 entries from across the UK, with the 11 category winners being announced at the event. The evening promises to be “somewhere between grassroots and glitzy” and, with the planet in mind, the menu will be vegan and the entire event will of course be plastic free.