Tenerife wants visitors and residents to think about beach pollution in a striking way. Not through long warnings or complicated campaigns, but with something that immediately catches the eye: surfboards made from cigarette butts. The project is called Surfing With Me and is based on a simple idea: a small piece of waste can cause great damage, but it can also be the beginning of awareness.
Drawing attention to pollution
The campaign is led by the Moving The Planet foundation, with the support of Turismo de Tenerife. The aim is to use the world of surfing to draw attention to pollution caused by cigarette butts on beaches and in the sea. Anyone who regularly walks along the coast often sees them lying in the sand, between rocks or near beach bars. They may seem small and harmless, but they are a persistent form of waste that can remain in nature for years.
Surfing With Me uses the surfboard as a symbol. The first boards were made using cigarette butts collected on Tenerife’s beaches. In this way, the project wants to show that waste is not only a problem, but can also be an opportunity to make people think. The boards are not merely works of art: they are travelling as part of a national and European expedition that departed from Tenerife on 22 June.
Clean-up actions
The expedition lasts twelve days and takes the project to well-known surfing spots in Spain, France, Portugal and the United Kingdom. After starting in Tenerife, the route headed towards PantÃn in Galicia, Cantabria, Somo and Mundaka in the Basque Country. It then continued to Hossegor in France and Nazaré and Peniche in Portugal. Between 30 June and 2 July, Praa Sands in the United Kingdom is on the programme, before the return to Tenerife on 3 July.
Before the campaign officially set off, two clean-up actions had already taken place on Tenerife. On 20 June, during International Surfing Day, Playa de Las Américas was cleaned up. A day later, it was the turn of Playa de Las Arenas in Buenavista del Norte. Cigarette butts and other marine waste were collected there, and participants received information about the impact of waste on the marine environment.
Taking responsibility for the island
According to the organisers, a single cigarette butt can pollute hundreds of litres of water. That is precisely why the project is also interesting for an island like Tenerife, where the sea, beaches and tourism are so closely connected. The initiative fits within a broader vision of more sustainable tourism, in which visitors not only enjoy nature but are also encouraged to protect it.
For people over 50 who enjoy discovering Tenerife in a different way, this is a fine example of how the island is changing. Behind the well-known beaches and promenades, a movement is growing that brings together tourism, nature and creativity. A carelessly discarded cigarette butt suddenly becomes a surfboard with a message: anyone who enjoys Tenerife also carries a share of responsibility for the island.
Photo: AIChatGPT
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