Protect Our Playground — Plastic Free North Devon

Our ‘Protect our Playground’ initiative aims to reduce plastic pollution on our beaches by reducing demand for plastic beach toys. We are doing this in two ways through our wooden bellyboard initiative AND our Toy Libraries.

Why pick on cheap, flimsy polystyrene body-boards we hear you cry?

Your average cheap polystyrene body-board is manufactured in China, shipped over 5000 miles, distributed to stores and surfed for 10 minutes before breaking and going to landfill. About 99% of all plastic comes from fossil fuels, these are then refined and manufactured into plastic, transported, used by consumers and disposed of into some form of waste management system or the natural environment. In 2019 over 500 boards were collected from Croyde by the Keep Britain Tidy (KBT) #waveofwaste project and in 2020 we are already up to 216 boards in just 26 days… Yes, it that’s shocking and the impact is massive and long lasting. Every stage of this process releases toxic chemicals into the environment that wildlife and humans ingest and inhale.

So what does our project aim to do?

Reduce plastic production and pollution by making sustainable alternatives available
Get residents and visitors to think long term

Encourage other businesses to seek more sustainable options including wooden belly-board hire.
Encourage the ‘think global, act local’ narrative. Here in Devon the ocean is our link to the rest of the world and we have a massive part to play in protecting this precious resource

How can you get involved?

I am a resident or a visitor to North Devon

Buy a Protect Our Playground wooden bellyboard. Specially crafted to our specification and proudly displaying the Protect Our Playground logo, you will soon be enjoying the delights of the Atlantic waves knowing you are helping to protect the ocean. Buy your board here, from Second Skin, Braunton or PuraVida Stores in Barnstaple.

Or you can hire one of our boards at one of our hire locations. For every board hired you will be raising money for our charity whilst enjoying the waves. Come along and ‘try the ply’

Where can I hire them from?

Saunton Sands; Saunton Surf Hire
Feshwell Camping, Croyde Bay
Offshore Surf Hire, Ruda Holiday Park, Croyde Bay

We also have a FREE hire sites to ensure that everyone is able to enjoy the ocean:

PFND office, Unit 6 (Nalu Beads), Velator Way - behind Braunton Tesco

You can recycle any broken polystyrene body-boards at the Ocean Recovery Project North Devon collection point on Croyde Bay.

You can also read our statement in response to the parliamentary response to our petition calling for a nationwide ban on cheap, polystyrene bodyboards.

I am an accommodation provider

If you are an air b&b, Guest House, hotel, holiday park or just rent your home out during the summer months, you can support this campaign by purchasing one of our Protect Our Playground wooden bellyboards, as part of our Visitor Campaign, for your guests to use for free during their stay. Interested? Please get in touch.

I run a surf shop

Fancy helping protect our oceans and support Plastic Free North Devon at the same time?

You can sell or hire our boards to promote the Protect our Playground message, provide a sustainable alternative and to generate income to help expand the project. If you would like to get this up and running then please get in touch.

The project has been met with great enthusiasm with lots of people telling us that they still have the bellyboards owned by their grandparents.

“It’s fantastic to think that something that our grandparent’s generation enjoyed can still be enjoyed by their grandchildren.” said Andy Clee, one of the team at PFND. “Who would have thought that wooden belly boards could become a metaphor for how we should be treating our planet? We really have got to start thinking long term about the impact that our lifestyles and choices are having and make some serious changes. Reducing plastic production and leaving fossil fuels in the ground are two of these and we should all be doing the best we can to move in this direction.”

TOY LIBRARIES

Our Protect our Playground Toy Libraries are designed to minimise the need for cheap buckets and spades that are often purchased for minimal cost to only be used once or twice before breaking or being discarded.

This project's aim is to reduce the need for cheap plastic toys, reduce waste and to connect people to nature in a meaningful and more sustainable way by offering them an alternative to single use toys.

Families can turn up to the beach, head to our library, borrow what they need for the day and then return the items for another family to borrow the next day.

Here are where our Toy Libraries are located: