The International WeLoveU Foundation launched a new campaign to restore ecosystems affected by plastic pollution with the Oceans and Waterways Cleanup webinar. Hundreds tuned in on Thursday, July 29, 2021, at 7 p.m. ET as panelists discussed the detrimental effects plastic pollution has on the health and environments of communities around the world.  

Meet the Panel  

Environmental activist and co-founder of Make a Change World Sam Bencheghib and climate optimist, actor, and CEO and co-founder of The One Movement Petrice Jones joined the webinar as panelists. They brought their passion for eliminating plastic pollution to the forefront of the discussion.  

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Sam joined the webinar from his home in Bali and shared his unique experience growing up on an island that gradually became one of the world’s largest epicenters for plastic waste. He expressed how his small efforts from a young age to shed light on the plastic pollution problem became a wake-up call for many. 

“We googled most polluted river in the world, and it just so happened to be a river in Indonesia… and unfortunately over 50 million people use the water from this river”, explained Sam, as he described the viral video he made that woke the world up to plastic pollution in the South Asian coasts. “We built kayaks out of 300 plastic bottles and went down the river and filmed the journey. To our surprise, a week later, the video got 50 million views. It was seen by the Indonesian government, and eventually led to the Indonesian president hiring 7,000 military soldiers to clean up the Citarum River.”  

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Petrice explained what it’s been like to partner with the Plastics for Change Foundation to turn plastic pollution into construction materials to build houses for families in India who are collecting plastic waste and helping to fight the problem amid their poverty. Petrice’s partnership with the Foundation has already transformed the plastic tarp tent of a home for a family of six in India into a beautiful and sturdy house with running water and stable walls and floors.  

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“Nobody doing work as important as collecting waste should be homeless, so part of our movement is to elevate the quality of life for some of these people doing such important work,” said Petrice.  

NJ Congressman Payne Makes a Splash in Oceans and Waterways Webinar

New Jersey Congressman Donald Payne Jr. of the 10^th district, who attended the 23rd New Life Family Walkathon, also joined the webinar. “The Intl. WeLoveU Foundation has been dedicated to improving the conditions of people worldwide. You focus on the belief that we are all human beings; I know your events are really designed to highlight that belief, and that is just really so incredible.” 

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The Sky is the Limit  

In all, the panelists sparked an inspiring dialogue and left the audience with great hope for the future of tackling the global plastic crisis.  

“No idea is crazy enough to protect our planet,” expressed Sam. “Let’s come up with the craziest ideas we can think of to get people’s attention around this issue of plastic pollution.” 

From building homes for those in extreme poverty with plastic materials to running 117 marathons in six months to get the world to pay attention to the plastic in our oceans, the ideas to mitigate plastic pollution and save our planet continue to reach new and profound heights.  

Stay tuned for more on the Oceans and Waterways Cleanup campaign to see how you can join WeLoveU in the race to reduce plastic pollution by cleaning the total distance of the East Coast shoreline, which is 2,165 miles long!   

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