Rhianna: Hi, I'm Rhianna
Matilda: I'm Matilda. Thank you for joining us today. We will be the interviewers. We are members of the Eco-Council, and we are very excited to hear from you today. Q: Could you introduce yourself and what you do on the local beaches? What is Ban Chang Beach Buddies? A (Jennifer): My name is Jennifer Sayles , and we started Ban Chang Beach Buddies about a little more than a year ago. What prompted it is my husband and I were going to the beach, and every time we went to the beach, we had to clean the beach before we could sit down and enjoy the beach. So we started cleaning by ourself, but every day we had to keep cleaning the same part of the beach over and over again, because there were just two of us. So we needed more people. So we decided to, uh, we had heard that another person was cleaning. So we started getting people together who had the same interest and we put together Ben Chang Beach Buddies and just a little bit of history about me. I retired here to Thailand two years ago, but I lived here many years ago and I was a teacher at St. Andrew's- I left there in 2001. So 1997 to 2001, I was a teacher at St. Andrew's. Q: Are you the founder of the Beach Buddies? Why did you start? A: So the founders are, it's a group of us that all got together. We were cleaning the beach separately and then together. And then five of us decided to get together and make the Beach Buddies. So it's my friend and his wife , a friend of us, my husband and myself. So it's five of us that are the founders of the Beach Buddies. Q: How much plastic do you think you've collected so far? A: It depends on how many people we have. If we only have three people, we gather about 10 to 15 bags of large plastic bags. If we have more than that, we can gather up to 50, 60 bags of plastic. I haven't calculated how much. I know other groups weigh their plastic as they're cleaning it, but we don't have the facility to do that. We do try to sort the plastic from the trash, and I can tell you, in one cleanup we filled two bags just with storm metal caps. And I'm talking about the big dog food bags. We filled two of them in one cleanup. So if you imagine that multiplied by a year of cleaning, it's quite a lot of trash. Q: Why is doing beach cleans important? A: Well, I think the most important thing is stopping the trash and marine wastes from getting into the ocean. But I'm one person and we're working, trying to help in ways that we can to stop the waste from getting into the ocean. So I always say to people that we're at the end of the mine, right? Where the last part of the puzzle and the last part of the puzzle is making sure the beaches are clean so that children like you and young babies whose parents bring them to the beach, don't think that the beaches should be covered in trash beaches should be clean, the animal should be safe, and so if there's trash on the beach or rubbish on the beach, I feel like we have to pick it up. But most importantly, we have to figure out how to stop it from getting there. Q: Who is your role model that inspires me to do what you do? A: Well, there's a man in England. I don't have his name. I can send it to you after the interview. (*His name is Rob Arnold. https://www.boredpanda.com/plastic-washed-ashore-tregantle-beach-trash-rob-arnold/ [Jennifer told us she used his methods when she started cleaning our local beaches with her husband and he encouraged her to get out and make a change. It is sometimes difficult to stay motivated and knowing that others around the world are also cleaning beaches helps her stay motivated.] He claims the beaches in England, and there's one part of the coast of England that gets a lot of the container ships go by and sometimes they wreck during storms. So they're kind of famous speeches 'cause you can find a lot of Lego, but there's lots of plastic. Watching him cleaning the beaches in England, I learned how to sift the sand to get the small pieces of styrofoam or phone. And he sort of was at the very beginning, when we started cleaning the beaches, he was my motivation because he goes out pretty much every day and he makes artwork with the things that he collects. So he's done a lot of art piece installations around England and other countries, I believe. But so I've learned some of my techniques from him and I'm inspired by him. Have you always wanted to do something to help the environment? I have, you know, when I was in high school. So when I was about 16 years old, the, in the United States, they started a program called 'Pitch In', trying to get people to stop littering. And I was the coordinator in my school. That's 50 years ago. I'm 66 now. So for 50 years, I've cared about the environment. And I've watched , as things became worse and worse and worse. So yeah, I've always cared about it when you're working full time and you're taking care of family, taking care of your parents, sometimes you don't have the time, but I'm lucky now because I'm retired. So I have the time and I really like the fact that I can dedicate myself to doing this. Q: Can you see the difference on the beaches since you have started the Beach Buddies? A: Sometimes, I can, certain times of the year, the wind changes and we get a lot of rubbish pushed up on the beach, which is quite upsetting, but I'll tell you, I see, less trash coming on the beach.But I do see that the local government has realized that people in Ban Chang want clean beaches. And so they have started doing more, locally. So sometimes we go to the beach to see, we usually go on Wednesday and look what beaches need to be cleaned. And sometimes we go and they're all clean. Because the local government has done some cleaning, but other times last week we went and all the beaches were quite dirty, so they need attention now. But I do see more people involved, I see more people, um, more trash cans had been put out for the picnic people. The government has, has said that on July 1st, they're going to have a company, they sent 3 million baht, on a private company to come and clean the beaches every day. So I'm hoping that happens. And then I can turn my attention towards stopping the marine waste from coming in. I mean, when you were on the beach cleaning, what kind of things did you pick up on the beach? Do you remember? Matilda: Lots of caps, straws, and the rope. Jennifer: Right, the rope comes from the fishing boats. So the problem is that the fishing boats' lines break, or they throw them overboard because they're not working that the nets. And so we get a lot of net on our beaches here in Ban Chang, and, and then, you know, think of all the animals that have tangled in that. So if we can get our beaches cleaned by a private company and don't have to get out there physically, then I would like to turn my attention more towards how can we help the fishermen, supply them with the equipment they need so that they're not throwing anything overboard and other things we, we need to reduce plastic. So that's my big goal is, to get people to reduce how much plastic they use. I did print up a picture for you, and this is my new kind of thing. If you can see the picture, you see these everywhere in Thailand, right? You buy a drink, you get the plastic bottle with the plastic top. With the plastic straw and a little plastic bag to carry it. So that's how many, four pieces of plastic, right? And all of these are dangerous for the wildlife that's in the ocean, especially this plastic bag. This plastic bag will go around the turtle's neck and suffocate it. So, you know, these are the kinds of things I'm trying to, trying to work with is trying to get people to realize that every bit of plastic that you buy goes into the ocean Thailand, two years ago, this is a number, used 70 billion plastic bags in one year. So we have to reduce how much plastic we use. And that's another goal of mine is to work at reducing plastic. So, 'cause we can clean it all we want, but we can only recycle how much, how much recycling do you do at home and how much do you think actually gets recycled? If you're really good at recycling, how much do you think would get actually recycled and used again?- 20- 25% of it is getting recycled. So if we only recycled 25% needs, we have to stop using it. So that's my, that's a long answer to where I want to go next. If the beaches are clean and I don't have to keep cleaning them every day. Q: When do you normally carry out the beach cleans? A: Well, we usually do them on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday. So Friday afternoon when people are off work, Saturday mornings or Sunday mornings, we have some people who cannot come on Saturday because they work. So we shift them back and forth to accommodate some of our regular beach helpers and it's cooler in the morning. If you go too late, it just gets too hot to do that kind of work. And it is hard work. Q: How many people do you need to organize a beach clean? Do you have any help organizing the beach cleans? A: I do. So we have five of us as administrators. Last year I went on vacation and they, you know, they take over an organized my, the other people in the group besides my husband and I all work. So we tend to do most of the organizing because we're retired and it's easy for us to have the time to do the organizing, but we get a lot of help. Q: What equipment you need to do the beach clean and how, and do you have to buy the equipment? A: You know, So, you don't really need much, you just need maybe a pair of gloves and a plastic bag. We get a lot of equipment, from the local government gives us gloves, and they give us plastic bags. We try not to use the plastic bags because we have a shop here in Ben Chang, called the Banana Shop, and they give us loads of those white recycled, dog food bags. So we re we try to use the recycling bags, if we can, but we do have plastic bags sometimes when we're separating, it's easier to put the recycling in the white bags and relish in the black bags, but the test upon a local government has been really good about supplying that stuff for us. We also give, tongs to help people pick up things. Sometimes it's easier to get stuff out of this sand if you're using tongs and we use sorting baskets and I often use the sorting baskets to screen, because the styrofoam and some of the little things are hard to see. So after people pick it up a pile and I'll go and screen it with the basket to get the sand out and get the rubbish, you know, sometimes I see shells and I try to throw them back. So we use baskets, gloves, tongs, and bags, and that's really all you need. But I mean, anybody can go out on the beach with a bag and pick up the beach. Q: Do you receive any money or support from the Rayong government? A: We do get support from them. They come and help us clean sometimes. Our last school clean, we had another school come and clean and they came and provided watermelon, and about 50 of their employees came and helped us clean. Maybe not 50, maybe 20 of their employees came and helped us clean. And they've come in out this clean at other. And like I said, they give us trash bags, they give us , and they're very supportive that way. Q: What is the biggest problem in our local beaches? What problem does Thailand face and what are the solutions in your opinion? A: I think the biggest problem is marine waste, and the solution is for people to use less plastic. To start using recycling cups. When you go to seven 11 to get a drink, get your coffee, or your drink in a cup like this. If you're buying food at a sometime shop, you make sure you have your own plastic containers or, or a metal containers that they can feel. So you're not using a lot of plastic reducing plastic. There's a lot of things that we can do to reduce plastic. I think one big issue in Thailand is that we're using so much plastic. Number two, we mean what better waste management for getting taken care of that way so that it's not winding up in the rivers and then it flows downstream and winds up in the ocean. And then the third thing would be the fishing industry needs to be held accountable for the amount of marine waste that they're creating. So I think all three of those things really need to happen. We have a big problem on all the beaches in Thailand, especially near where fishing industries and rivers are flowing. You'll see more waste farming waste coming to shore. Q: What type of support would you like to make the cleanup easier to organize? A: I think what we're trying to do now, we just met with the Mayor of Ban Chang last week, and what we're trying to do is coordinate because some of the oil companies and plastic, petrochemical companies from the map to put industrial park, they come and clean, but they never coordinate with everybody. So we would like to have more coordination so that every week.Either the Ban Chang Beach Buddies, or one of the petrochemical companies, or one of the government organizations… That somebody is on the beaches, cleaning the beaches and addressing all the problems. Having enough people to help clean the beaches and making sure that they're cleaned on a regular basis, making that the financial priority instead of making streetlights and they often use the money for things that for me are not a priority. So for me, it's not a priority to have sculptures of sea animals going down the road for me, when you get to the beach, I'd like to see a clean beach. So if we make that the priority with the oil companies, petrochemical companies and local government and private citizens, I think we could really tackle this problem. Q: How can people at Green Valley help? A: You guys have already helped. You guys come and helped clean the beach so many times. And when you guys do, I'm not kidding, you guys come as an army and you clean five times more beach than I ever think we're going to get clean. So just keep coming and helping us clean. You can write letters to the petrochemical companies and ask them for their help. You can write letters to the local government and say, we'd like to go to a clean beach. If you have photographs of a dirty beach, send it to them and say, you know, what can we do to help make this a cleaner environment? You can talk to the local governments about fishing waste that's coming on the beach because we have to put pressure on them because I cannot talk to the fish and inspect their boats. When the boats come in after fishing. If they don't have any waste, if they don't have any trash or rubbish on their boat, where do you think that trash or rubbish is as they're coming home? They've been fishing for two days. They've thrown it overboard because they don't want to have to deal with it when they get back or they don't have the plastic bags; it's too expensive for them. They're already on a very fine margin of making any money. So, these are the things that we can, we can do to help. You guys, as students can do, you can write letters, you can come and help clean, which you guys have been really great about doing. And, just try to use less plastic- for adults like your teachers and parents, to not to use so much plastic every time they get it. It starts in the morning. When you wake up, what are you going to do for coffee? Are you going to get it in a plastic cup? Are you going to get it in your own? Start there and then try and work on it through the day. I'm not a hundred percent perfect. There are times, I went to the store and I bought lasagna in a plastic container, but I reuse it I'll have that same plastic container next year. I use it to grow plants and because I save everything and reuse it. And the more I say, I realized I can't, I cannot keep saving. I don't have room in my house for all that plastic. I have to stop using plastic. Q: Our last question is what is your dream for beach buddies? A: My dream is that, uh ,this could make me cry. My dream is that we don't have to have a beach buddies anymore, that the environment is taken care of from the top. So the oil companies and petrochemical companies figure out a way to make cups that biodegrade and then are becoming waste in our oceans, fishing vessels begin to take care of the ocean as much as they can, understand that the health of their ocean is also the health of their business. But my dream is that we don't need people to go and clean the beach, my dream is that we don't need Ben Chang Beach Buddies, and I can go sit on a beach in my retirement and read a book instead of cleaning the beach. I know that's a lofty thing and it probably won't happen in my lifetime, but that's what my dream is. Matilda: Thank you for giving up your time to answer our questions. Jennifer: Oh, you're more than welcome. Thank you for all you guys are doing for the environment.
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