Meet the Ambassadors
Sharona Shnayder
Sharona Shnayder is a 22 year old Nigerian-Israeli environmental activist mobilizing for climate justice in the Middle-East. She is also the Founder of the global grassroots movement Tuesdays for Trash inspiring individuals around the world to dedicate Tuesdays–or every day– for trash picking, conversing about the waste management issue, demanding better practices from big businesses and becoming responsible citizens working towards a healthier home for all. Additionally, she serves as the Chairwoman of the social justice non-profit OurstreetsPDX and is a part of the Global Choices’ Arctic Angel community. Her main passion is to reduce global waste and create a more sustainable, clean and equitable home for everyone on this planet.
Alexandra Medina Perez
Alexandra Medina Pérez is a graduate in Marine Sciences and since 2021 she has been actively organizing clean-ups in coastal and ravine areas of Gran Canaria. She dedicates her free time to raise awareness about pollution and tries to involve all citizens of the island in the fight. For this purpose, she uses her academic background to share the scientific evidence of climate change with everyone she knows and each volunteer that joins at her events.
Henry Ferland
Henry Is a 20 year old content creator, climate optimist, and eco musician. Located in Boston, Henry goes out everyday and cleans up trash around the City. Through his fun and wholesome content on TIkTok he has created a community of people from all around the world who are inspired to clean up trash too and to make positive impacts to help our environment. Outside of social media Henry is also a full time student at Berklee College of Music and an international guitar thumbpicking champion.
Elizabeth Sherr
Elizabeth (Liz), known as her handle @lizlivingblue, is an ocean and sustainability scientist and activist that uses social media storytelling to inspire local action in marine protection, primarily through beach cleanups. Even though Liz has studied the ocean and done cleanups since she was young, her activism took off on World Oceans Day 2021 when she created a #TrashChallenge campaign with the European Parliament that encouraged global viewers to pick up trash in their communities. Liz has since created other “Trash Challenges” that provide both a real and positive take on our planet’s plastic pollution following the theme “every piece counts.” Liz also shares content on marine science education because she believes, “the more we learn about our oceans, the more we can care about them.”
Maija Elizabeth
My name is Maija Elizabeth and I am a 19 year old Sustainability Content Creator based in Maryland! I enjoy taking care of our oceans by cleaning up trash in my community and helping others live a more eco-friendly lifestyle. Let’s make the world a better place!
Carissa Cabrera
Carissa Cabrera is a marine conservationist, sustainability educator, and climate advocate. For the past 10 years, Carissa has focused on ocean recovery efforts related to endangered species, ecosystem restoration, conservation financing, community outreach, and environmental literacy. She co-founded The Conservationist Collective, an environmental storytelling platform dedicated to informing and inspiring others to find their unique place in the environmental movement. Carissa’s work, company, and media projects are united by the shared goal to increase accessibility to climate education and accelerate conservation action on a global scale.
Alex Filarado
Alex Filardo is a fisheries biologist, media producer, and field researcher based in Hawai’i. He earned a Masters Degree in Marine Science and now specializes in conservation storytelling and field work in remote regions of the globe, including the Pribilof Islands in Alaska and Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument of Hawai’i. He co-founded The Conservationist Collective in 2020 to harness the power of media to share science with the public. Alex believes in a community-driven and collaborative approach to conservation that seeks to educate and empower local communities.
@alexfilardo
@theconservationistcollective
Paul Waye
Hi, my name is Paul Waye.
I am a 55 year old ex-Brit living in the Netherlands (now officially Dutch), and I am perhaps.. maybe..hopefully.. the “hardest working plogger in the World”!
A grand claim for sure! haha. But let’s see if I can back it up. Oh gosh, I have a lot to live up to now!
WHEN I STARTED
My first official plog was in 2011. I was on my run commute to work when I noticed all this trash in the hedges. So I bent down, picked some up and made a tweet about it.
Although it wasn’t the first time I did something like that, it was the first time I did it and made a social media comment on it, so I take that as my first time
(yep, it was 5 years before the Swedes came up with the word plogging, so I just said ‘look what I picked up while running’).
EVERY TIME I PLAY SPORT, I PICK UP TRASH!
Like others, I used to do it every now and then (a few times a week), but in 2019 I made a deeper commitment and pledge to pick up trash EVERY time I do a run, bike, swim, SUP. It only has to be one piece but is usually a lot more
(just during sport I collect well over 220lbs/100kg of trash each and every month)
Yep.. I run a lot – 4000km a year (around 11km/7miles each day on average)
EVERY TIME? REALLY?
Yep.. even….
Marathon races – I pick up a piece of trash on the way to the starting line, carry it around the whole way and then put it in the bin.
To the litterbug I say; “you couldn’t take it 10m to the bin? Well I just carried it 42,195m AND THEN put it in the bin”
Sheyla Ravelo Perez
Sheyla Ravelo Perez is the reigning Miss Earth Cuba 2022. She has a passion for sustainability and protecting our oceans. Growing up in Cuba, she has a deep-rooted connection with the ocean and has always strived to live in a way that protects it. Sheyla serves as an example to others by doing cleanups regularly and using her voice to spread awareness about caring for our environment. On top of this, her platform entering Miss Earth is to combat overconsumption in fashion and showcases this through her reuse and reimagination of old dresses into new creations.