Driving change

Celebrating an exciting partnership between Oltco and the UK Pro Surf Association – working towards a cleaner future.

Newquay based Oltco has become the official environmental partner for the UK Pro Surf Association’s UK Pro Surf Tour initiative, ‘Clean Breaks’. The two-year deal will see both Oltco and the UK Pro Surf Association (UKPSA) work towards positive change for the environment, taking an active role in cleaning up the oceans and beaches around the UK’s coastline.

“we throw away 8.5 billion straws every year – the devastating impact of waste plastic is becoming an increasing concern”

Founded in 1998 by the UKPSA, the UK Pro Surf Tour is the only series of pro surf events held across Britain. The tour has a number of divisions to choose from, including Men’s, Women’s, and Pro Juniors’. During this year’s tour, the five events will take place in Cornwall, Wales and Scotland.

As a business based in Cornwall, Oltco Directors Tom Stringer and Johnny Pearce noticed the negative effect that plastic has on the UK’s beaches and wildlife. This inspired them to develop an industry first: Recycle Bound – a resin-bound solution made using recycled plastic.

By using waste such as plastic drinks bottles, food packaging and straws, Oltco is able to utilise these forms of plastic waste by converting them into resin-bound driveways. In fact, each square metre of Recycle Bound consists of the equivalent of 3,000 plastic straws! Therefore, if Recycle Bound was laid on a standard 50 square metre drive, it would recycle the equivalent of 150,000 plastic straws in the process.

Committed to setting up a Pro Surf Tour that is more environmentally conscious, the UKPSA conceived the ‘Clean Breaks’ initiative in order to help clean up the UK’s oceans and coastlines. Moving forward, the UK Pro Surf Tour will be removing and recycling single use plastic from its operations, also undertaking a beach clean at each of its events.

Johnny Pearce, Co-Director of Oltco, tells us: “The partnership between Oltco and the UK Pro Surf Association is an important one for both organisations. In the UK, for example, we throw away 8.5 billion straws every year – the devastating impact of waste plastic is becoming an increasing concern. Becoming the official environmental partner is a powerful way of raising awareness about single use plastic in Cornwall and the rest of the UK.”

Biff Lancaster, Operations Director for the UK Pro Surf Tour, explains: “It’s fantastic to find another organisation who care about our beaches and the oceans as much as we do. With their help, our goal is to leave the beaches in a better state than we found them and remove single use plastics from everything we do on the UK Pro Surf Tour.”

Discover More

To find out more about the ‘Clean Breaks’ initiative, visit: www.ukprosurf.com/cleanbreaks

Oltco

www.oltco.co.uk/residential/services/recyclebound