SCENES shines a focus on formative years around the globe which are breaking down limitations and developing replace. The character-driven brief movies will encourage and amaze, as those younger change-makers inform their exceptional tales.
Sydney Steenland has been residing on a ship together with her circle of relatives since she used to be a kid. Her circle of relatives moved onto the boat to begin with when they were given into monetary difficulties. This distinctive way of life then again gave Sydney the chance to look portions of the sector that almost all kids may simplest dream of.
“As we travelled, we saw some pretty amazing places and exquisite nature, but we also saw some pretty horrible things, like plastic everywhere. It didn’t matter where we went, what country we were in, what the financial status of the area was, there was always plastic around in every environment,” explains the 16-year-old.
14 million lots of plastic
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a minimum of 14 million lots of plastic finally end up on the earth’s oceans once a year. Plastic particles is essentially the most ample form of marine clutter, making up 80 in line with cent of all particles discovered international.
Witnessing the level of plastic air pollution on the earth’s oceans, Sydney and her circle of relatives determined to arrange a social endeavor mission. The Sea Monkey Project recycles discarded plastics and turns them into moral souvenirs.
‘Start doing something’
“Whatever you care about in the world, whether it’s poverty, hunger, climate change, plastic pollution, it can be anything. But when you want to start doing something, you have to physically start doing it. It can be anything, it doesn’t matter how small,” Sydney tells Scenes.
The Sea Monkey Project has upcycled greater than 22,500 merchandise and has organised on the subject of 10,000 instructional workshops. Sydney and her circle of relatives arrange the mission when she used to be 11 years previous and named the mission after their circle of relatives boat.
“The project got the name ‘The Sea Monkeys’ because my brother and I were very small at the time. We were like little monkeys in the sea, climbing over everything in our boat,” she recounts.
How it really works
The mission recycles plastic the usage of machines that the circle of relatives builds and distributes. Their machines are constructed the usage of open-source blueprints from a Dutch business dressmaker referred to as Dave Hakkens. “We took his brilliant idea and put it through many different trial and error processes and eventually made our own machines,” explains Sydney.
The upcycling system has 3 separate portions; a shredder, which breaks large chunks of plastic into smaller flakes. An extruder, which melts plastic flakes developing molten plastic and an injector which injects the molten plastic into mold cavities.
“We can take this plastic material that nobody values and we turn it into items that people can use in their everyday lives, for their schooling or for use in their kitchen,” she says.
Sydney’s circle of relatives are primarily based in Malaysia, the place they’ve 26 machines scattered across the nation. Since 2018, the mission has positioned 57 recycling machines in 15 different international locations around the globe.
“We provide employment opportunities to marginalised communities around the world. We provide employment for refugees, who manufacture most of our products and we organise educational workshops,” says Sydney’s father, Carlos Steenland.
‘I teach workshops’
Education is on the center of The Sea Monkey Project and Sydney teaches most of the workshops herself. “I teach workshops and explain the process of recycling and encourage people to make their own recycled products using our machines,” she states. “I also give talks in different countries about the problem of plastic pollution and hopefully inspire people to make a difference in their communities,” Sydney provides.
Sydney is pushed via a robust need to avoid wasting the sea that she and her circle of relatives name house. “I believe that the earth is in a pretty bad state at the moment in every way. It doesn’t seem like much is getting better, but when you look closely, there are small changes being made, and if we can all stand together to slow down the process of the earth crumbling beneath our feet, then we’ll work towards a solution eventually,” she concludes.
