​

The Why

The why is, at its heart, straightforward; to make an impact.

​

But just like everything there are layers to an answer.

Just as valid as an answer would be

​

"To make something that goes viral" - the more people that see it, the more chance I can inspire, but also the better the chance that I can turn it into a full-time job (or at least get something financially back)

For that last point, this is not at the heart of why I do it. I would do it anyway. I have been picking up trash while running since 2011, so this can never be considered a shallow reason. But I would be lying if I said there wasn't a personal dream in there too.

​

"To have fun"

"To inspire"

"To start conversations"

​

But my official reason is as follows (taken from this post: www.instagram.com/p/C5_expeqeXz)

This is not a costume that I bought in a shop.
This is not a costume that has a single purpose.

Every element has meaning.
It doesn't just tell my story over the last 13 years that I have been plogging.
It also tells the stories of others who have helped me and mean a lot to me.

It is not a negative story.
It isn't against governments
It isn't against brands

It is a positive story
It is intended to inspire.
It is intended to help us realise that we can change the world through our positive actions.
And, that we can have fun doing it.

I went there with the intent to be seen
Or rather, for the outfit to be seen.
 

This is at the heart of what I do.

All the focus that is placed by activists on governments, corporations and brands is 100% right.

Responsibility and action needs to be taken.

​​

But let's not use them as a convenient excuse to fail. 

​

In the Netherlands, plastic single use spoons and forks are now banned. Brilliant! But instead of finding a plastic fork thrown on the ground, I now find bamboo ones.

 

Sure, the impact is way less. But do we really think the world can be saved if we don't show it the respect it deserves? If people drop a bamboo fork, the future looks bleak.

My mission is to inspire people (through positive stories) to not drop bamboo spoons

​​​

​

​

​

​

​

​​

​

​

​

​

​

​

The Outfit

​​

The canuary dress is truly a Haarlem outfit.

​

600 Cans - there are around 600 cans on the outfit. Around 400 in the dress, hat and legwarmers, and 200 for the flag.

 

40hrs - it took around 40hrs to make all the holes in the dress, prepare the cans and attached individually to the dress

 

1 yellow dress - underneath is a yellow dress make by zero waste fashion designer Geesken Vormgeving. It is actually made from street flags gifted to her by the some shops in the Cronjestraat (a famous Haarlem shopping street) - they were used to hang above the shops along the street. Geesken was so wonderful to give her time freely to the project. More on it here: www.instagram.com/p/C0SSS0Jqis0

 

3 weeks - I collected the cans over 3 weeks of plogging around Haarlem

 

6kg - the outfit weighs 6kg, and the flag a couple more. But the flag was a couple more. The flag was the difficult element; because the weight was on the end, it felt closer to 10-15kg

​

Red Bull flag - the flag is only made up of redbull cans because of ALL cans i pick up, 1/3 of those cans are one brand alone! Red Bull. It is not to say that RedBull is bad. Quite the opposite. They are in a position to make the biggest impact. If they can educate their consumers to not drop their cans, then that is 1/3 less cans on the street in one go!

​

Twine and Zip Ties - I attached the cans to the dress using twine as I didn't want to use plastic if i could help it. But for the flag i did need to use a lot of zipties. The reason is because of the weight. it needed strength. I can justify this because it isn't an outfit i will get rid of.

​

Flag Pole - The father of a dear friend (Bert) passed away. Bert knew I wanted to make a flag, and he offered to give me his father's pole. What an honour. So I wrote the name of his father on the pole. I also wrote the name of my mother and father-in-law who also sadly passed away. More names have now been added that hold meaning (currently 6 names on there)

​

Ukraine Shoe Laces - To use the flag for Rotterdam Marathon I needed to keep the flag rolled up at the start (for safety) - I used blue and yellow shoelaces that I bought at the Rotterdam 2022 Marathon Expo in support of Ukraine.

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Timeline

 

Perhaps the easiest way to tell the story is through a timeline

​

Jan 2000

 The first (energy) canuary campaign. In January I only pick up one type of trash; cans. So instead of JANuary, it is CANuary. I have been doing that each January since, with the craziest results coming in Jan 2023 (https://youtu.be/SwI6a06dSB4). 

​

Jul 2023

Introduction of the statiegeld (deposit) system. The big question is; how much of a difference would it make? In Jan 2023 I picked up close to 8000 cans. How many would I find in Jan 2024? I knew it was going to be an important canuary year. i knew I wanted to do something big.. but wasn't sure what.

​

Nov 2023

I made a movie poster remake of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour

​