Alisonís Adventures Maldives
ìOne manís trash is another womanís bikiniî
While shooting Discover Channelís #1 show Naked and Afraid in the Maldives, I was overwhelmingly shocked by the amount of plastic trash covering the uninhabited, picturesque island. This was only one island – I couldnít bear to imagine what the other 1,200 islands looked like, covered in trash. To leave the island we actually made a raft out of bottles. As we paddled to our rescue boat, I swore I would come back and do something about the plastic pollution.
After returning from ìeverest of survival challengesî living with NOTHING for 21 days, I devoured a chocolate bar, took a much needed shower and my first thought was: How can I help transform plastic waste around the world into usable items? The scariest thought was that only a portion of the plastic trash was coming from the inhabited islands, it was also coming to the island chain from other countries brought by the ocean currents.
Over a year later I retuned to the Maldives, hosted by Shaahina Ali and accompanied by photographers/videographers Sarah Lee and Mark Tipple. Together we set off on a wild adventure back to ìmy islandî wearing all clothing made from recycled plastic bottles from a company called Repreve that transforms plastic into usable thread for world renowned brands like Patagonia, Odina, Teeki, Volcom, and Roxy – and of course my surfboards are Sustainable Surf approved Eco Board made from recycled styrofoam and sunglasses from Zeal Optics.
An international icon of natural beauty, my experience in the Maldives presents an opportunity to tell a crucial story about plastic waste and recycling that fits into my ìSurf Survive Sustainî mission, of living a non-invasive existence as environmentally responsible as possible.
While there, I collected trash in an effort save the highly threatened biosphere (insert manta photo) and then retuned to my Naked and Afraid island to do a beach clean up with
