Joan Fabres wears a waterproof jacket over a blue shirt and sneakers that will easily become soggy if he steps wrong between rocks or slips on the rocks on Bjellanstrand. The project manager at GRID-Arendal is one of those who have worked with a report his organization published about marine litter earlier this summer. Now he wants to tell how close the problem is to home.

“I was out here in the spring, and then it was completely disgusting here. There was trash everywhere. Now much of it is covered by seaweed, but it has not been picked up and over autumn it‘s going to be washed back into the sea,” he says while he balances on rocks, pulls away seaweed and discovers more and more rubbish.

“Therefore, beach cleaning campaigns are very important,” adds Malin Høyme. In recent months she has been an intern at GRID-Arendal and used one of her last days to study the garbage situation at Bjellanstrand.

Fabres goes barely a step without stopping and pointing to a large or small piece of plastic from far or near, the results of a journey on the seven seas. Soap from England. Butter from Denmark. Four of the six million plastic pieces that disappeared from Saulekilen treatment plant last year. Norwegian jam. Fishing lines. Plastic from silage bales. A glove used in the offshore industry. The end piece of a red balloon.

“People release balloons just up in the air, they do not think about where garbage ends,” comments Fabres.

John Crump

Dr. Heidi Pearson

Björn Alfthan and Hanna Gjerdi