The Oceanriders Podcast

Episode 21: Meet Shell Cleave, founder of Sea Hugger

Episode Summary

This week, I got to meet up with Shell Cleave in Half Moon Bay, California. I had a lovely conversation with Shell about the NGO she founded a year ago, called Sea Hugger. In this conversation, we discuss the reasons that lead Shell to leave working as a freelance Technical Writer for Silicon Valley giants, and to start a non profit from scratch. Shell has an amazing personality and it's incredible how much she and her fellow volunteers have achieved in such little time. We talk about what is required to make a legitimate non profit (and be capable of receiving tax exempt donations) and the campaigns Shell is leading with Sea Hugger. We also talk about the impact plastic waste is having on our ecosystems and Shell shares some really cool tips on how to avoid using disposables in the first place.

Episode Notes

This week, I got to meet up with Shell Cleave in Half Moon Bay, California. I had a lovely conversation with Shell about the NGO she founded a year ago, called Sea Hugger.

In this conversation, we discuss the reasons that lead Shell to leave working as a freelance Technical Writer for Silicon Valley giants, and to start a non profit from scratch. We talk about what is required to make a legitimate non profit (and be capable of receiving tax exempt donations) and the campaigns Shell is leading with Sea Hugger.

Part of Sea Hugger's mission is to raise awareness about the terrifying impact our waste has on the ocean's wildlife. At the end of the day, this absurd cycle affects our own health so we discuss conundrum of offering sustainable solutions in a disposable economy.
In this episode, Shell explains what triggered her to leave the corporate world and to launch her own NGO, from the inception of the project to receiving all the legal documents to be legit. She was so happy to find that she had the irrevocable support from the surfing community of Half Moon Bay and likeminded NGOs such as Surfrider San Francisco.

Today, Sea Hugger is a grassroots NGO based out of Half Moon Bay but whose mission is to go global. Sea Hugger organises beach cleanups, nurdle counts (you'll find out what a nurdle is in this episode), and school trips for youngsters. They are part of an ambitious campaign against the tobacco industry to force them to make cigarette butts more sustainable and their petition has already gathered 130 000 signatures! 

Sea Hugger has sister partnerships with likeminded NGOs around the world. Of course, Shell isn't alone in this adventure : she has managed to attract a crowd of highly motivated volunteers from the surfing community and inhabitants of Half Moon Bay.

In this conversation we talk about how waste and plastic waste in particular is EVERYWHERE! How can be avoided in the first place and how we can have a positive impact on our environment. 

This is also the story of how determination, ambition and passion can move mountains.

We all know the impact plastic is having on our environment, it's just a question of how long will it take for us to change our habits? What's encouraging is that after my conversation with Shell I felt more uplifted than I usually feel when talking about the environment. 

It's nice to know that there are plenty of alternatives to our disposable junk and that we should all start by thinking how we're going to be disposing of our plastic containers before we buy them. You can find a list of really cool items that will replace your staples.

Thank you Shell for being such an enlightening guest! 

To get in touch with Shell, you can reach out to her on seahugger.org , Facebook or on Instagram @sea_hugger.

Links
Seahugger: www.seahugger.org 
Donate to Sea Hugger: https://www.paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/3369542
Change.org : sign the petition to ban or make the ingredients inside cigarette butts more sustainable : http://chng.it/4X2QQ8MfFs
Not For Sale (the NGO that helped Sea Hugger hatch as a non profit) : https://www.notforsalecampaign.org/
Plastic Free made easy: https://seahugger.org/blogs/news/plastic-free-made-easy
Get a Nurdle Trommel for your own beach cleanup : https://nurdle.org.uk/
Book : The Blue Mind

About the Oceanriders Podcast
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