Bringing Beach Cleanups to the Landlocked

Beach cleaner’s Anne Mäusbacher is reframing what it means to be an ocean advocate in Germany, one cleanup at a time.

Anne Mäusbacher of beach cleaner leads a beach cleanup in Nürnberg, Germany.

A few years ago when Anne Mäusbacher was telling me about her project beach cleaner, she said, "You know Sam, most Germans don't live by the sea, so we don't always think of the ocean when thinking of conservation. I want to change that."

“Not by the sea” is quite accurate. While Germany's northern coastline is a windswept expanse neighboring the North and Baltic seas, the rest of the country’s main water sources are Alpine lake colonies and river networks, sourced from mainly the Rhein, Danube and Elbe.

But the lack of waves hasn’t stopped passionate marine advocates like Anne from stepping up and making a stand for the ocean across hometown communities.

Germany and the Environment

It seemed par for the course for Anne to start a movement in her hometown of Nuremberg, part of Bavaria and neighbors with Munich and the stunningly underrated Franconian Switzerland mountains. Germany is consistently one of the world’s ten most green, clean air, climate-conscious countries, all which happen to be in Europe.

Combining that conscientiousness with a solid economy and ample holiday time, Germans have the ability to travel farther afield, returning with inspired ideas and observations. Anne’s personal discovery around the global plastic problem came organically— she had seen the impact of pollution while on holiday in Ibiza— the crux was seeing how badly covered in plastic the beaches were. She started bringing a personal tote bag to collect trash while traveling with her family and eventually brought the concept back home.

Beach Cleanups

Beach cleaner’s events, usually hosted along Nuremberg’s main Pegnitz river and in parks across town, are full-family affairs. Kids of all ages scanning the bushes with grabber reachers for someone’s tossed soda bottle, fathers dredging abandoned pieces of furniture out of the river, Anne showing the kids with a stick how what we toss into the river funnels out to the ocean. Park-goers look on and thank the group for paying it forward.

“Despite our landlocked-ness, we are intrinsically connected to the sea. The Pegnitz meets the Rhine-Main-Danube canal which connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Black Sea. It is a giant network of waterways, connecting the source of life to the people who depend on it. ”

It’s a perfect activity for a Saturday morning. It’s the chance to get outside, be with community and do something productive with the family. Mostly, it’s instilling a love for nature in our children and showing them how we can do better to protect it.

Ocean Connection: How to Join a Beach Cleanup when visiting Europe

—Bavaria-bound? Come to a beach cleaner event and pick up Kids for the Ocean as a how-to manual for the family.

—Check out Surfrider Foundation EU for Europe-wide grassroots cleanups.

—In the UK, Surfers Against Sewage is out there protecting the waves they love.

Low Plastic Living

Alongside keeping local cities beautiful, Anne and beach cleaner encourage a plastic-free lifestyle for communities, schools, and businesses. She wrote and published Kids for the Ocean, a book and inspiring platform connecting families and local communities to plastic-free living and marine conservation.

With beach cleaner’s Mission Clean Ocean initiative, she is bringing the concept into the work environment and inspiring companies and employees to incorporate their own plastic-free options at work. Easy eco-swaps, beach cleanups amongst co-workers, it’s all possible. Why not?

It's been beautiful to watch her passion grow from a small local startup to a regional powerhouse turning little steps into big splashes, connecting rivers and oceans. It's precisely the connection we need to help keep this planet healthy for our kids.