In this special episode of the Reloop Brief, we catch up with Merijn Tinga, also known as the Plastic Soup Surfer. He joins us live from his paddleboard as he travels from Paris to Nice for the UN Ocean Conference – to highlight the role of deposit systems.
Merijn shares how his creative activism, surfing on a board made of plastic bottles, sparked a national movement that helped advance and expand a deposit return system in the Netherlands.
He also explains how deposit systems reduce beverage container litter by up to 80%, the role of grassroots action and AI-powered litter research and why empowering local groups is key to scaling effective waste policy across Europe.
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