Author: Jake Brown

Review of my great internship experience at S.A.S!

It’s the penultimate day here at surfers against sewage, and what a fun and engaging experience this has been.

Week 3 & 4:

  • During the last two weeks, I have been doing smaller tasks, such as typing up many of the plastic-free pledge names and emails into a spreadsheet (thankfully, a handful of volunteers took the main chunk out of this task!) I also made a comprehensive budget for 25 new Beach Clean boxes for schools around the country. To be more suitable for school pupils, certain items had to be altered from last year’s budget, such as 2x goggley eyes and 2x graptor, and a change from a regional reps hoodie to 4x school reps tee’s, in the hope that a small team of pupils will safeguard the box year upon year.

Mid-internship here at Surfers Against Sewage

Following a long, hard but very enjoyable weekend working with the team at Boardmasters festival, I am now back in the office.

Being the chosen sponsored charity at the site gave us a huge advantage, in that artists would promote our movements, whilst videos and artwork such as a boat created from plastic bottles purely sourced from UK beach cleans were displayed at the festivals most popular locations.

I was very much involved with community engagement regarding the new campaign ‘Wasteland’, and informing the public on how to reduce their individual plastic footprint. Working closely with regional Reps from across the country gave me the opportunity to understand more about the problems they also faced with respect to marine pollution in different areas such as Scotland, Southampton and Essex; the experience has very much inspired me to become a regional Rep once the internship finishes.

My first day at Surfers Against Sewage

Today I started my internship at Surfers Against Sewage, a Cornwall based charity focused on improving UK water quality and the reduction of single use plastics, as well as broader issues such as marine conservation and climate change.

Having just launched their new project ‘Plastic free Coastlines’, a positive response to an accumulation of plastics with an area of 5x the size of the UK (newly branded ‘Wasteland‘), there is a vibrant and energetic atmosphere in the office. The project aims to engage communities and businesses in the problems that Wasteland is creating, and provides a free action plan, inspiring you to ‘join the resistance’.