On the 21st August 2018 we collaborated with People And The Sea to conduct a brand audit on Malapascua.
A brand audit is a very specific type of beach clean. It involves collecting pollution and the data on that pollution too. This data, when collected from around the globe, can give us a picture of patterns. Like which brands are found a lot, and what type of pollution is found a lot.
Holding producers responsible for pollution has the power to create change right from the top. It has the power to hold them accountable for the problems associated with their packaging.
Myself and People And The Sea received training from the Break Free From Plastic campaign, and completed our first mini brand audit.
The stretch of beach we chose, was extraordinarily polluted. It's a relatively short beach, that receives no beach cleans. We wrote a report that can be found here.
Thoughts on Extended Produce Responsibility:
Conducting this brand audit and contributing it to the Break Free From Plastic campaign gave us some perspective. Doing these beach cleans are incredibly important aspect of creating change, from the top. However, it is not the only solution. A large percentage of the plastic we found was unbranded. Single use cups, plastic sheeting etc. This means there is not a brand to hold responsible.
It also takes away an unfair amount of responsibility from consumers. Although producers should be doing more to change their packaging, consumers should be doing more to dispose of it properly too. It takes two to tango. The beach cleans, education and brand audits are all incredible valuable parts of the jigsaw of "the solution".
Break Free From Plastic also released their report that complied the global data input for 2018.
Find it here: https://www.breakfreefromplastic.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/BRANDED-Report-2018.pdf