#plasticfreejuly interview nr 1

I have heared about this brand few months ago and I got curious. How comes that two Hungarian girl is so devoted to ocean prtocetion. I wanted to find out so I asked them few questions about thier devotion. Thanks for the opportunity Underseabikini !

Introduce yourself, please!

We are Tóth Móni and Szomolányi Szandra, the founders and souls behind Undersea Bikini. While Móni lives in Budapest, Dézi in the Canari Islands. We are on different journeys but one thing we have in common: we both love oceans, nature and animals.

Introduce your company!

Undersea Bikini is a swimming suit brand and its’ values are based on nature and more preciously on ocean world protection. This is the reason why our products are made from fishing nets and other type of plastic waste which were found in the bottom of the ocean. The brand is not only special and unique because it is made from plastic waste (and it is also recyclable) and gives quality product for the consumer but also we create special programs, campaigns where we call attention for these environmental issues. One of these project is a charity project, where we donate 10% of every purchase to a turtle preservation fund. The main message of this brand is: every small step counts. That is also the reason we are so attentive to the details, every single part – like labels, packaging is made from recycled materials or recyclable. The other important message is that you can create your own business, make products also in an environmental friendly way too. There is always a choice, you just need to pick the good one.

What did lead you till you want to open a company based on environmental protection?

As I mentioned above already, we both love nature and in many cases it comes together with travelling. We prefer to travel in smaller places, not in bigger towns where we can discover the untouched and real part of the country. Unfortunately more often we bumped into hidden paradises where were full of trash. Not directly from locals but more coming from the oceans, seas – what it brings to the coast. As we love diving we saw so many disappointing situations undersea as well. These experiences were always really sad, but this is what lead us to have a deep look into this topic. Overused waters, white corals, ocean

The more we got to know, the more secure we get that we have to do something about it. This is all how it started.

Why did you choose this way to handle this problem (ocean pollution) ? Why bikinis?

From the four elements we definitely are the water. I guess, we are sirens walking on two legs – so there were no question we had to deal with the ocean waste. People not really think of what is the role of the ocean in our ecosystem. you can imagine the ocean as the lung’s of the Earth, it regulates he climate and it is the main source of food. In this way you can understand how important it is, we all connect to them and it effects the economy of the globe as well. When we got to know this we wanted to call other people attention to this main issue. Swimming suits connect to water / ocean and here are item s what you change time to time. We aimed to create a swimming suit what is good quality, you do not  have to change every year. We also have a service where you can send us back the used swimming suit and we make sure it goes into the right place.

How does it effect your personal life?

Finally we make something what we do love to do. We do everything to create quality and the brand behind and we want to make something sustainable. It is truly uplifting to do this, so I hope that by the supportr of customers we can do it for a long time because we have so many plans ti make it happen.

What kind of low impact habit do you follow?

We try to leave behind the single use plastic objects. We always do the shopping with a huge bag pack so we do not have to use plastic bags. In restaurants and bars we always refuse the plastic straw and we avoid take away food in plastic containers. We never buy plastic bottles – we have our own steel bottle what is made from recycled material – we always bring with ourselves. There are situations where we cannot get rid of plastic – in these case we collect selectively.

What do you get as a reward from this job?

We receive many motivation and positive feedback from people, that it truly matters what we do and do have to speak up against ocean pollution in order to live a more healthier planet. Many people think it is all about money, but is more than that. We want to show a positive example to those who did not realize the importance of this issue.

What are you long-term goal? What do you want to reach?

We would love to reach as many people as we can and make environmental protection sexy and fashionable. Even more, I want that doing business, producing should be all environmental friendly. This should be the only way! We would like to give a solution to our customers, where they can also feel they helped. We would love to connect all people from every part of the globe who has the same mindset in oreder to create something meaningful. Unfortuntely our Planet is  in danger so in the upcoming few years it is a real game changers what kind of decisions we make. Till people do not change their attitude change will not happen. We support the process of changing people mentality.

Who is the target group?

Everyone. Even men! We know that every women would be happy with a nice swimming suit – as they get as a present!

I will be satisfied, when…

people wants to buy environmental friendly products from sustainable brands and the opposite will be uncool.

What we should change if we want to live sustainable, in a greener future?

Everything depends on mentality and attitude. First of all everyone should change a bit for him / herself, in order to understand and accept everything depends on personal decision making. People should not wait for others (politicians, activists, etc) to resolve a problem instead of us. No one knows, when those time will come where a aw can resolve a problem – and even if this time comes it might be already too late.