The Ocean Initiatives - Organizer Guide

This can appear as a fore gone conclusion, but choosing the place where the litter collection will take place is the first thing you need to do to organize your Ocean initiative. Choose a site accessible to the public and without danger for the participants (heights of banks, tides, etc...).

f you have not yet done so, start by REGISTERING your collection on the Internet site. This step will officially trigger your Ocean Initiative (OI) and making it visible on the site and accessible by your potential participants. In addition, the registration of your OI will allow us to guide you throughout its organization.

It is after this registration that we will send you free of charge the kit containing the material for your operation. It will be made of the elements that you will have chosen in the stage "Kit" of online registration.

As regards the delivery, the date will be communicated to you by the carrier as soon as the kit will have left the storage warehouse. Keep this message and note the delivery date in your calendar.

Once your collection has been saved, you can complete the list of participants in the part: My Account > my collections > List of participants.

This list allows you to communicate with all of the participants and to inform them in real time of any last-minute changes. Therefore encourage as many people to register there. As well, remember to print out the list of participants and to bring it on the day of the operation to complete it on the spot.

Your OI will take place on a site that is part of the public domain. It is therefore necessary to alert the authority or the organization in charge for the management of the spot where your future collection will take place.

To help you, we have drafted a template of the letter authorities to send to the local communities and/or organizations in charge of the management of the place. This document will allow you to inform them of the operation and to ask them for some support (provision of buckets for the waste, gloves …) whenever possible.

This approach must be committed as early as possible, in order to ensure a good collaboration and to give your operation the best chances of success.

The organization of your Ocean initiative is already well advanced. It is now time to advertise it in order to have a maximum number of participants. Try to invite local actors (associations, companies, shops, stores, etc.) to participate in your operation (cf. FAQ Section web site).

They  will bring an added value to your operation as for example the increased participation of the public, the organization of a recreational activity,  logistics support, in-kind donations, etc. ... We recommend that you also contact local media (press, radio, TV,) which are often interested in initiatives of this kind.

To help you in the promotion of your event, Surfrider offers you the following tools. You can download them on the OceanInitiatives website:

- Posters illustrating the campaign of the year with a box where you can enter the place and date of your OI

- You can also create your own poster. To do this, download the files on our web site and edit them with the assistance of an image processing software

- The press folder and press releases

- Visuals and banners to be used on your social networks (Twitter, Facebook and other)

For any other question concerning the communication and promotion of your operation, contact us via our contact form using "media" as the subject line of your message.

It is important to welcome the participants properly and to indicate clearly to them the place where the collection will take place. To do it, you can use communications tools (posters, pictures, banners) available on the Ocean Initiatives website and in the kit of the organizer. 
We suggest you to choose a point of welcome easy to identify and accessible by all.

We have mentioned this, but it is very important to encourage all the participants to register on the sign-on list (online and/or in paper format). This will allow Surfrider not only to send a message of thanks to the participants, but also to provide them with information on the theme of the marine litter and to inform them about other mobilization opportunities.

When the action is completed, you will be able to finalize your online list of participants by adding the data of participants who registered on the day. To do this, go on the website, in the part: My Account - My collections.

You have great chances of finding all kinds of waste during your collection. The safety instructions are therefore an essential step prior to start picking up the waste. Take the time to inform all participants making reference to this summary sheet.

You can also print and display it in a visible way on the site.

The equipment of the Ocean Initiatives is provided by Surfrider Foundation Europe. Distribute it to participants with parsimony and try to recover everything that can be reused for your future collections.

Here are some indications for the distribution of tools in the kit:

   - Plastic bags: 1 bag for 2 participants    
   - Hessian bags: 3 bags per collection
   - Gloves: 1 pair of gloves for 2 participants

You can create groups and distribute 1 bag by group.

Before starting the collection, do not forget to remind participants about what the aquatic waste is and explain them what types of waste will be collected. Also, remind participants not to pick up everything that falls under the organic matter (pieces of wood, leaves of sea, etc.) in order to preserve the ecosystem in which the collection takes place.

According to the number of participants and the level of the pollution of the beach, you can choose between various strategies of waste collection (make groups according to the types of waste, to attribute a zone by group, have a team competition…).
In the end, for an effective collection of waste, we suggest you to you get some distance from your starting point and to collect waste on the way back to it. This will minimize the distance which the participants will have to travel with bags filled with waste!

When you return to the starting point with bags filled with waste, you can gather the participants around a point of reference to discuss with them about the problem of marine litter.

We advise you to begin by exchanging with the participants about the activity which just took place and to ask them some general questions (how it went? What did you find most? Did you find unusual waste?...)
After this exchange, you can take advantage of the attention of the audience to pass on to the participants some information and key concepts concerning the problem of aquatic waste.
To allow you to handle this part serenely, we are making available you a wide knowledge base available on web sites below:

               Ocean Campus

               Surfrider’s website

               Tutorial – How to host an educationalsession?

               Tutorial – What is marine litter?

               Ocean initiative posters

 If you have other questions on waste, do not hesitate to contact us.

In 2015, Surfrider partnered with the European Environment Agency in order to share the data collected during the Ocean Initiatives.

For this we need your help! A report sheet is available on your account for you to populate it with the quantity of certain types of waste that you have collected. You can view the report sheet online or print it and take it with you on the day of the collection to complete it on the spot. In all cases, you can return on your report sheet at any time and complete it directly on the Internet site from your account.

If you want to have more information about the report form and the “citizen science” of the Oceans Initiatives, you can consult the FAQ page of our web site and/or contact us via the contact form online. For questions relating to this part, please choose "Environment" as the subject line of your messages. In addition, to go further in the “Citizen science”, Surfrider offers you the possibility to participate in a larger european monitoring operation at European level through the Marine LitterWatch application.

Before leaving, do not forget to thank all the participants and valuing their contribution to the success of your Ocean Initiative. It is their involvement and yours which make the Oceans Initiatives possible!

Take a photo of the group after the collection of the waste. Photos illustrate the operation in our communication documents and their presence on the Internet site reflect your commitment. You can also post this photo, as other photos of the operation on Instagram/twitter using the hashtag: #OceanInitiatives.

You would expect that the waste which you have picked up must leave the natural environment and get to the processing chain.

Based on the agreements that you have taken with the local authority or the competent organization for your site, you will have the choice between:

 - Take the waste to the dump or to the nearest sorting center.
 - Leaving the waste in the place agreed with the local authority, ensuring that a transition to the technical services has been scheduled.
 - Put the waste in buckets directly made available by the local authority

If the containers provided are too small to contain all the waste collected, we advise you to take the bags with you and to bring them in an appropriate place.

The procedure to follow in the management of waste depends on their composition, state of degradation, decomposition ... It is not always obvious to know what to do of a waste and it is often necessary to check whether it can be recycled or not.

For this, Surfrider puts at your disposal a summary document in order to guide you in the management of your waste.

In all cases, keep in mind that you are responsible for the waste at the end of your collection.

That’s it! You are back at your place, your OI is finished, or almost… It is still necessary that you send us the different information related to your collection. This part may appear secondary to you, yet it is essential for the monitoring and the continuation of the project. Once again, go to your account on the website of the OI where you will need to:

   - Complete online the report Sheet.
   - Enter the details of the participants (entered on the sheet in paper format on the day of the collection) on the list of participants online.
   - Add the photos of your collection on the website of the OI and on social media networks.

In the end, do not forget to collect the press coverage of your event and send them by email to oceaninitiatives@surfrider.eu with the subject line: “press coverage: name of your collection – date of your collect” – or by paper mail at Surfrider Foundation Europe, 33 allée du Moura, 64200 Biarritz, France.