The Seaside Scavenge is more than just a beach and street cleanup. It's about putting a value on litter and focusing on the experience while doing it.

In the lead-up, we ask people to clear out their wardrobes and donate their belongings. At the Seaside Scavenge location, we set up a market with all the fantastic things people have ‘thrown’ our way.

Then for every ten pieces of litter people pickup on the Seaside Scavenge, they trade it for one bottle cap that has been painted to distinguish it from other rubbish. All litter items are equal in value because every single piece makes a difference. Each item in the market is priced at the value of 1, 2 or 3 bottle caps and this is their trash currency to be traded for some funky goods. Later we separate and quantify the rubbish into categories: straws, coffee cups, plastic cutlery and cigarette-butts etc and pass the data onto Tangaroa Blue that keeps a nation-wide database of beach litter items collected.

We also focus on the experience. We don’t just want people picking up litter, we want them to come back and do it again with their friends because, let’s face it, picking up other people’s litter even on a beautiful beach, isn’t many people’s favorite past time.

So what do we do? We throw some live music into the mix!

This definitely attracts a crowd. We have already held one successful event at Coogee Beach, Sydney where we had over 100 people attend. What we would like to do for the next event is to engage more musicians, and we also would like to invite artists to run workshops on creating art and objects from the litter. This will demonstrate to everyone that even single-use items can be used again and again.

This is how we plant a seed for change, for awareness and for the future!