Less Plastic, We Are Fantastic
FANTASTIC CREW is Amorepacific’s plastic-reduction campaign, working toward a culture where we use less plastic and collect it properly so it stays in use longer instead of being discarded. Season 1 connected plastic-reduction practices with a variety of hobbies people enjoy in the city, suggesting environmental habits anyone can keep up in everyday life. Season 2 takes those practices out into nature.
With ‘FANTASTIC CREW in NATURE’ as the concept, six action crews are out collecting plastic themselves in places all over the country, including the sea, the mountains, and the city. We hope to spread a culture of plastic reduction far and wide by sharing how each crew does its work and the stories behind it. Here is the third story.
Tell us about GOGODIVE, the group that protects the sea through diving.
GOGODIVE is an eco-friendly activity community that collects marine debris through diving and runs ongoing environmental cleanups along Korea’s East Sea coast. We don’t stop at simply gliding through the water. We want to take it upon ourselves to protect the sea we love and build a safe, sustainable culture of environmental diving that divers can enjoy being part of.
Through our regular ploving tours (ploving combines plocka upp, Swedish for ‘pick up,’ with freediving, and means picking up marine debris while diving), we continuously collect trash and discarded fishing gear that has sunk to the bottom at major dive sites. Before each outing, we review safety rules to avoid harming the marine ecosystem, such as maintaining neutral buoyancy and keeping sediment from being stirred up, and we station safety staff and check currents and depth in advance. We also regularly hold ploving outings that new divers and club members can join, and we share what we collect and record in the field on social media to raise awareness of the problems facing the marine environment.
Q1. When did you first become interested in plastic reduction?
When we dive in Korean waters and abroad, we often come across plastic containers, plastic bags, and tangles of discarded fishing gear dumped right in the middle of beautiful scenery. Each time we’ve seen trash like that up close, so out of place against the sea stretching out before us, it has come as a real shock and left us keenly aware of the problem.
It was even more heartbreaking when we came across marine life that had swallowed plastic, mistaking it for food, or become entangled in discarded plastic string and nets. Once we learned that plastic entering the sea breaks down into small fragments, becomes microplastics, and can move through the marine food web, we felt we couldn’t put off our actions any longer. Watching the sea we love change is what led us to do something about it ourselves, from reducing plastic in everyday life to cleaning up underwater.
Q2. Why did you decide to join FANTASTIC CREW with Amorepacific?
We believe solving marine environmental problems requires many different parties moving together toward the same goal. Amorepacific has been running campaigns grounded in its social responsibility for the environment, and we concluded that working with the company would let us lend our strength to a larger movement to protect the marine environment.
We joined FANTASTIC CREW Season 2 hoping our participation would take GOGODIVE’s work a step further and, at the same time, give us a chance to work toward a sustainable marine environment alongside people who share our goals.
Q3. If there’s a moment from your time with FANTASTIC CREW that stands out most, tell us about it.
The moment that stands out most is when five divers joined forces to haul up a large piece of discarded fishing gear. We found it deep down, abandoned and intricately tangled around the rocks. It was large, and the netting posed a risk of entanglement, so it would have been hard for one diver to handle alone. The divers regrouped using underwater signals, then divided up the work while keeping visibility clear. One diver cut the tangled netting, for example, while another attached a lift bag, a type of buoyancy bag.
Checking each other’s positions and balance, we raised the gear up to the surface little by little, and when we finally hauled it all the way onto the boat, we felt a deep sense of achievement. On our own, we’d have hesitated even to try recovering gear that size. Doing it as a team brought home to us that underwater cleanup can make a bigger difference when people who share the same goal work together.
Q4. Has FANTASTIC CREW brought about any changes within GOGODIVE?
FANTASTIC CREW Season 2 has given caring for and protecting the environment an even more prominent place in GOGODIVE’s diving, alongside the enjoyment of the sea. Seeing household trash such as broken liquor bottles, snack bags, and disposable cutlery lying on the seabed with our own eyes, we also felt keenly that the marine debris problem isn’t far removed from what we consume every day.
Since then, we’ve done more than admire the underwater scenery. Every time we go in, we practice ploving, picking up whatever trash we can see. The biggest change we’ve experienced through Season 2 is that we now see the sea not only as a place to enjoy but as one we need to look after together.
Q5. What are some ways to reduce plastic in everyday life?
Day to day, we bring our own tumblers and reusable cups to cut down on disposable cups. In the bathroom, too, we use solid shampoo bars and body bars, trying to rely less on products that come in plastic containers.
Q6. What efforts are needed to bring about social change?
First, we’d like to add elements of gaming and record-keeping to ploving. We’d run ‘Ploving Bingo,’ where participants work through missions on a bingo card filled with types of trash that are safe to collect, then earn rewards based on how they do. Discarded fishing gear, bottle caps, and other usable items we collect could be made into keepsakes such as keyrings, mask straps, and coasters. We also see value in a ‘Digital Ploving Map,’ which would log the type, location, and amount of trash in an app or online, visualizing the marine debris situation.
We’re also thinking about how to connect these practices to dive tours and everyday life. One way would be for dive shops to lend out tumbler and reusable-container sets for a deposit. Or they could run a ‘Green Pass’ that offers tour discounts or equipment-rental perks to divers who show they’ve used a tumbler, collected trash underwater, or done something similar. We could also pair beachcombing and upcycling classes, where people make art from materials collected on the beach, with a ‘Zero Waste Tour’ that serves food and drinks in reusable containers. Together, they could turn plastic reduction into an enjoyable experience.
Q7. Were there areas where working with Amorepacific created extra synergy?
Because this kind of cleanup takes place beneath the sea, it’s hard to fully convey what the site looks like, or why the work matters, to people who aren’t divers. Through these activities, we shared campaign content showing the marine debris we came face-to-face with and how we collected it. In doing so, we were able to bring the plastic problem beneath the sea up to the surface and out into the open.
Linking Amorepacific’s campaign channels with GOGODIVE’s underwater work gave us a way to share with more people what divers do to protect the sea. The most meaningful synergy of this collaboration was that we could take an underwater problem that had been hard to see and convey it through concrete stories from the field.
Q8. Is there anything you’d like to leave us with as a member of FANTASTIC CREW?
‘Reducing trash in everyday life first’
We believe reducing trash in everyday life, before it ever flows into the sea, matters as much as hauling it out of the sea. When we cut back, one item at a time, on the plastic we use without thinking, we can take a first step toward protecting marine habitats and making the sea cleaner. We hope underwater cleanups won’t end as a one-off experience, but will prompt more people to reflect on their daily habits.
We’ll hold on to our gratitude for the joy the sea gives us and, together with like-minded partners, keep working steadily, in and out of the water, for a sustainable marine environment.
Q9. Finally, how would you sum up GOGODIVE’s journey with Amorepacific in a single phrase?
A worthwhile journey that produced meaningful action to change the sea and struck a powerful chord
Amorepacific and our fellow GOGODIVE members brought their passion together in shared action for the sea, and we saw firsthand that even small efforts can lead to greater change when we join forces.
Next Crew
FANTASTIC CREW in NATURE. FANTASTIC CREW’s work for nature carries on. Seoul Forest and the city, the mountains and the waters off Jeju, and even beneath the sea’s surface. Follow the stories of all six crews in turn, each working at a different site and cutting down on plastic in its own way. Up next is the story of ‘SSJ Morning Club’, a group of people who gather at Seoul Forest every Sunday morning to create positive change in the community through plogging.
Learn More
Curious about previous stories from Fantastic Crew Season 2?
#2 Sseureoker, making environmental protection a joyful culture for youth
To use less, collect properly, and ensure plastic is used without being discarded.
To no longer leave plastic meaninglessly on Earth.
With AmorePacific and everyone together, the world can become more fantastic.
Now, reduce plastic and move toward a beautiful world. LESS PLASTIC. WE ARE FANTASTIC!
Discover more on AMOREPACIFIC STORIES.
