Surfrider Foundation Europe

Since 1990, Surfrider Foundation Europe has become a reference in the fight to protect the ocean and its users, thanks to the passion and commitment of its community on the ground
.

With real expertise in aquatic waste, water quality, user health and coastal development, the NGO also benefits from very solid support on the ground, with a network of 1,800 active volunteers, 18,000 members and 150,000 supporters working in some forty local branches throughout Europe.

SFE is a major player in environmental consultation in Europe and particularly in France. Since 2012, Surfrider is one of the few NGOs authorised by the French State to participate in the national public environmental debate.

As such, it sits on the National Council for Ecological Transition (CNTE) and takes part in environmental conferences. It is also a member of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE), the National Sea and Coastal Council (CNML), the Higher Council of the Merchant Navy, the National Waste Council, the TAAF Advisory Committee, a member of the Board of Directors of the AFB and of the 3 Coastal Maritime Committees, in order to ensure that an ecosystem approach to marine issues is taken into account.

Approved as a popular education organisation since 2006, Surfrider is developing an ambitious programme of education, training and public awareness of ecological interests. Finally, Surfrider is an independent NGO and an active counter-power, as shown by its litigation.

Given this observation, and the impossibility of cleaning up the ocean in the long term, Surfrider Europe's ambition is tocurb the phenomenon by intervening at source. Knowing the distribution of this pollution will enable us to target priority areas, take effective action and assess the impact of the measures implemented.

Plastic Origins is a program designed to identify the most polluted areas and thus better understand the context of waste pollution. Surfrider Europe and other associations will use this data to put pressure on those responsible and elected representatives toeliminate dumping in the wild and demand compensation.

How does it work?

Thanks to volunteers across Europe, data is collected via the Plastic Origins app, available on Android and iOS.

First option: film the riverbanks via the application. The artificial intelligence algorithm then analyzes the video and automatically detects visible litter, which it counts, geolocates and classifies according to type (bottle, fragment...).

Second option: it is also possible to manually mark and classify garbage encountered during an outing on foot or in a kayak. This option is preferable when there is little litter on the banks.

All the data collected will then be made available online on the Plastic Origins website and accessible to everyone, in the interests of total transparency. The ultimate goal of this project is to obtain a map showing the level of pollution of all European rivers.