Ocean Conservation in the Spotlight at Ballito Pro 2025

Ballito, South Africa — The Ballito Pro Presented by O’Neill is proud to announce an enhanced focus on ocean conservation at this year's event, launching a comprehensive recycling and education campaign in partnership with Litter4Tokens. Sponsored by Petco, President Stimulus Fund, and Brownie Points, this initiative aims to significantly reduce waste and educate attendees on the importance of recycling and environmental preservation.

Beach Activation: Litter4Tokens Nurdles and Ballito Pro Recycling Project

Location: Main Event Surf Contest Site, Ballito Beach Dates: Full duration of the Ballito Pro 2025 event (10 days)

Litter4Tokens Recycling Station: A dedicated recycling station will be set up by Litter4Tokens at the Lifesaving hut. Litter4Tokens staff will receive waste from their branded bins from the contest areas throughout the day to sort, weigh, and upload data to the Litterhub app. Over 20 collectors will also be walking the event site throughout the 10 days, collecting recycling from spectators to minimise beach and ocean litter.

Bins:

• 1 x bin for all plastics (1, 2, 4, 5)
•        1 x bin for landfill including food waste, Styrofoam (P6 number 6), and non-recyclable                   plastics (LDPE number 7, PVC number 3)
• 1 x bin for glass 1 x bin for tin & cardboard

2024 Impact:

• Total Recycling Collected: 694 bags.
• Materials Collected: Glass, cardboard, plastics (types 1-5).
• Total Weight Repurposed: 1157.18 kg.
• Total Waste to Landfill: 472 kg (including Styrofoam and food waste).
• Nurdles Collected: 3.56 kg.

Educational Outreach: Litter4Tokens will provide educational materials and demonstrations at their wash/recycling/education station, focusing on recycling and reducing ocean litter. They will showcase the impact of the Litter4Tokens campaign across South Africa.

Collection and Data Logging: Litter4Tokens collectors will sort and collect all materials, logging data on their Litterhub app to document the types and quantities of waste diverted from landfills. DCWM will verify the collection of all materials and data, paying any rebates to the Litter4Tokens foundation to support our collectors in KwaDukuza to prevent further collection of ocean-bound waste. WSL Ballito Pro will receive daily impact reports to share with the spectators and sponsors, and global team.

Rebates and Sponsorship: All recycling rebates from the event will fund the collection of 1,000 bags of ocean-bound waste, feeding and empowering local communities. Each bag collected by Litter4Tokens collectors is valued at R39, including PPE, training, minimum wage, tools, contributing to a sustainable circular economy.

Carbon Footprint Calculation: The environmental impact of the initiative will be measured by calculating the CO2 emissions prevented through recycling efforts, with results shared publicly. Community Involvement: Attendees are encouraged to participate by properly disposing of their waste at designated stations throughout the event and cleaning up microplastics/nurdles during the 10-day event.

History and Impact

Litter4Tokens is celebrating 10 years this year of incredible impact we couldn’t’ do without our sponsors and support. President Stimulus fund, Petco, Olala Interiors, Ballito Lifestyle Centre. Since its founding in 2015, the Litter4Tokens campaign has made significant strides in waste management and community empowerment across South Africa. To date, the initiative has:

• Prevented over 3.92 million bags of ocean-bound waste.
• Empowered more than 982,000 people across South.
• Africa Averaged 72,000 bags of sorted materials monthly.
• Engaged 2,432 active waste collectors across 22 substations in South Africa, including KwaDukuza, Richards Bay, Mpumalanga, and Estcourt.

Launched the National Nurdle Clean-up Campaign at the Ballito Pro in 2019, educating over 79,000 people and collecting over 34 kg of nurdles, equating to millions of nurdles removed from the ocean.

Our founder Clare Swithenbank-Bowman has created and implemented the Litterhub app, which is the first in the world to track full data from collectors, MRF's and processors showing the full impact across geographic locations, landfill, co2 and methane prevention in line with EPA, which now can show all funders, sponsors the full impact of waste collection.

Litter4tokens was nominated for the Earthshot awards in Cape Town 2024. This enables all MRFs and processors to also track their impact, keeping all data in one place, eliminating greenwashing. The app logs packaging collection, recycling, and repurposing data, highlighting high-pollution areas and calculating CO2 and methane prevention. The Ballito Pro 2024 was the first event to utilise the app, showcasing the full waste diversion impact in real-time across the 10-day event.

The app demonstrates how events can track, sort, repurpose, and transparently present total environmental impact to the public and funders, and they can then compare year on year and global impact for the WSL to see how each event compares.

How to Get Involved

Volunteers: We welcome volunteers to assist with sorting and educational activities. Interested individuals can sign up via our website or visit the Litter4Tokens tent on the beach.

National Mermaid Tear Catcher campaign: While enjoying the surfing action, spectators can participate in our Mermaid Tear Catcher activity, sieving the sand for microplastics, aka nurdles. Participants have the chance to win amazing prizes. These include a surfboard worth R7,200 made from bio-resin and natural fibres, along with additional prizes from Fiamma Grill, Concha Cafe, and Coco de Mer and a 2-night stay at The Cavern Resort & Spa.

Join participants in the National Mermaid Tear Catcher campaign (Nurdle Cleanup), where volunteers collect tiny plastic balls all over our beaches - Mermaid Tears are used to make ALL plastic products. manufacturing. These are lost at sea, from roads, trains and up-stream swept into drains by plastic manufacturers.

Sponsors and Partners: Businesses and organisations can support our initiative by sponsoring a campaign or funding the recovery of specific packaging volumes. Sponsorship opportunities include full access to event waste data on Litterhub. 

Attendees: Visitors can contribute by using the recycling bins provided and spreading awareness about ocean conservation. Your support helps promote environmental sustainability and prevents further nurdle spills into our precious ecosystems.

Global Advocacy

Litter4Tokens has been actively campaigning for the amendment of the IMDG code for nurdles to hazardous materials since our founder, Clare Swithenbank-Bowman, discovered this global issue when, in 2019, we had 45 metric tons spill in Durban Harbour. She has been working on getting the world to classify nurdles as hazardous material. Since 2019, there have been several nurdle spills at sea.

The largest recorded spill occurred in 2021 when the X-Press pearl shipwreck released 1,680 tonnes of nurdles into the ocean and onto the shores of Sri Lanka. Other spills have been reported in Hong Kong, South Africa, New Zealand, Norway, the Netherlands, and the USA. According to Plastic Soup Foundation, each year, 230,000 tonnes enter our oceans and, within the EU alone, 23 billion nurdles a day end up in the environment. According to Plastic Soup Foundation, each year, 230,000 tonnes enter our oceans and, within the EU alone, 23 billion nurdles a day end up in the environment.

By advocating for preventive measures, we aim to stop the pre-production pellets from spilling into our environment from all transportation mechanisms. We believe that prevention is better than a cure, as once they are in the ocean and the environment, it is too late. We still have a container at the bottom of the ocean off Plettenberg Bay that is spilling trillions of nurdles in South Africa, and they are also being released by plastic manufacturers from their factories into the drains, which reach our ocean.

If this amendment change happens and she has presented to the IMO and UNEP, it will increase the price of virgin plastic (nurdles) as they have to be shipped as hazardous material around the world in sealed containers like oil, so little to no spills. We need the world to come together to make this change happen before it's too late.

Measuring Success

We will track waste diversion rates, recycling quantities, and overall waste generated throughout the event, compiling a comprehensive sustainability report demonstrating transparency and commitment to environmental stewardship. We weigh and track the geographic location of all Nurdle collections throughout the event via our website. Each MTC has a unique code and allows the volunteer to enter unique details - Mermaid Tear Catchers - Litter4tokens

Join Us in Making a Difference

Help us advance sustainability by participating in the Ballito Pro 2025 recycling campaign where we sort and collect over the 10 days event. Together, we can make a lasting impact on ocean conservation and community empowerment.

Contact Details

Clare Swithenbank-Bowman, CEO/Founder: +1 650 421 3893 clare@litter4tokens.co.za Riyan Barker, Project Director: +27 65 897 2448

Litter4Tokens: www.litter4tokens.org, www.trash4tokens.org, www.litter4tokens.com (App)