Wowza. Who would’ve thought spending 10 days picking up trash could turn into one of the most phenomenal weeks of your life. 10 days, 12 beautiful, inspiring humans, and an absolute shit tonne of rubbish. On location in Cape York Queensland with Clean Coast Collective at Chilli Beach, one of the remotest stretches of sands in Australia.
A two day drive from Cairns through vast, varying landscapes and red dirt tracks, the Cape can be hailed as a bit of a tropical paradise with its palm tree laden shores and white sands. Unfortunately, it’s not quite what you imagine. With the Eastern Pacific circling down from our Indo neighbours, this section of the coast accumulates a whopping amount of marine debris, the majority being plastic.
The tribe getting down and dirty. There’s no way we would have finished the beach without volunteers from Tangaroa Blue and the Australian Conservation Council by our side the entire time | Photo by Jemma Scott @thesalty.dreamers | Cape York, Australia
A harsh reality | Photo by Jemma Scott @thesalty.dreamers | Cape York, Australia
Meet the Trash Tribers! There’s just too much to say about this awesome lil fam. A bunch of artists, designers, photographers, entrepreneurs and conservationists with one mission, and a passion for protecting our oceans | Photo by Jemma Scott @thesalty.dreamers | Cape York, Australia
In 6.7 kilometres of beach we managed to collect 7 tonnes of trash. 7 tonnes. How is that even fathomable? The amount of plastic in our oceans is a serious issue, and one that’s not going to be a quick fix when one piece can last 50,000 lifetimes longer than our own short stint on this Earth. Every piece of plastic that you don’t use, whether that’s taking a keep cup down to your local cafe instead of using a takeaway, or stylin with your super groovy hand-stitched Boomerang bag instead of a monotonous plastic one, really does make a difference.
The amount of plastic and debris was completely overwhelming. There was one morning where we only got through 200 metres in 4 hours. The realisation of the enormity of this global issue hit each one of us at a different stage throughout the trip. It wasn’t uncommon to see someone on the beach rise defiantly from the trash and shout a long, truthful “FUCKKKKKK” | Photo by Jemma Scott @thesalty.dreamers | Cape York, Australia
Chilli Beach, Cape York | Photo by Jemma Scott @thesalty.dreamers | Cape York, Australia
It’s extremely inspiring to see individuals and small groups of people like Heidi Taylor, co founder of Tangaroa Blue and Nat & Dan from Clean Coast Collective who go out of their way to tackle the plastic pollution issue, whilst inspiring others to do the same. Their efforts aim to change individuals way of thinking and the movement of contemporary society into a serious domino effect. These beautiful people are just a few of the movers and shakers of the modern day man.
Dan and Nat unravelling fishing ropes from a piece of driftwood. @_danielgsmith @nat.woods_ @cleancoastcollective | Photo by Jemma Scott @thesalty.dreamers | Cape York, Australia
Picking up trash is made easy when it’s in a tropical paradiso like Chilli! @luke_okay @libbydoughty | Photo by Jemma Scott @thesalty.dreamers | Cape York, Australia
Convoy en route | Photo by Jemma Scott @thesalty.dreamers | Cape York, Australia
Clean Coast Collective came about after Nat Woods and Dan Smith travelled and meandered their way around Aus, in a troopy, for 7 months. They were completely baffled by the amount of plastic nestled throughout some of Australia’s remotest beaches and oceans. It bothered them so much that they created a consumer movement stopping plastic at the source. The best part - all profits go directly towards funding clean up expeditions like this 10 day Cape York trip. And what a good time it was. I seriously cannot express how much respect and admiration I have for my fellow Trash Tribers. When you’re thrown into a small bell tent with eleven other people, you can only be thankful that they are extremely like-minded, kind-hearted souls with incredible stories. Hats off to all these beautiful people doing great things, and playing their part.
Tangaroa Blue is an Australian-wide not for profit organisation that has been tracing plastic debris back to its source for the past 14 years - taking illegal fishing boats down with them. Co-founder and absolute lady boss Heidi Taylor’s mantra is “if all we do is clean up, that is all we will ever do.” | Photo by Jemma Scott @thesalty.dreamers | Cape York, Australia
Spidermonkey @libbydoughty | Photo by Jemma Scott @thesalty.dreamers | Cape York, Australia
Cold beers, a sinking sun and insanely good vibes after 10 wholesome days spent on the Cape. Chilli Beach Trash Tribe 2017. Cheeeeers to that | Cape York, Australia