Plastic Soup Surfer

04/06/2026

Heet van de naald. De podcast met de grote finale in Rome en mijn kwartier met de Paus in het Vaticaan. was erbij en interviewt me naast zijn podcastbus.
Luister via je gebruikelijke podcast app en zoek naar Trash Talk of idealen podcast of kijk in de bio of op Plasticsoupsurfer.org

02/06/2026

Tonight, Vanavond: come to Utrecht bibliotheek Vredenburg to hear my story on how I managed to get a private audience with Pope Leo and see our 30min film on the previous solo surf stage Paris-Nice.
Start: 19h
more info Plandelen.nl

Film made by: and
FIlm premiered at in october

29/05/2026

Free film and all the questions you can think off! Tuesday June 2nd 19h in Utrecht Neude library - the official opening to the Plandelweek Utrecht - organised by and with
More info and tickets: Plandelen.nl

25/05/2026

We actually had fun meeting Pope Leo XIV. My 15 minute private meeting was not all serious. And I took some friends along: In the picture with me: Stefano Bellomo who helped manage the expedition in Italy and Raffaella Giugni the director of Marevivo whose volunteers and branches in Genua, Viareggio and Rosignano welcomed me, fed me and gave me places to sleep.
Now I am back home I am slowly starting to realise how special and amazing the whole experience has been!
His Holiness assured us he would show our proposal for a drs system to the (only) shop in the Vatican. With the introduction of a deposit scheme in the Vatican we hope to speed up deposit in Italy - and further.

24/05/2026

Back home in my garden this morning and already reminiscing those beautiful moments on the Italian Mediterranean.

Once again thank you to everyone that made the campaign possible! My team and the Italian partners like A BUON RENDERE - Molto più di un vuoto , Marevivo , Lega Navale Italiana and the Italian Rotary endorsing EndPlasticSoup
Grazie mille!

23/05/2026

Sneak peak of my private meeting with Pope Leo XIV! What an incredible moment. (We managed to get the pictures after all - but are still waiting for the official ones without watermark). I offered his Holiness a deposit return system for the Vatican. With his support this will speed up the introduction of deposit return in Italy and all over the world. (80% less littered plastic bottles within 6 months when introduced).
In return I was offered the 'Official medal of the Pontificate (no. 1308 of 3000).

Still more photos to come! Thank you everyone who made this possible!
All the support, the 'soupies', my team and Tible for the deposit machine which hopefully we will install in the coming months.

Thank you all!

22/05/2026

My 15 minute private audience with Pope Leo XIV was so private and off the books that the Vatican will not publish the photos of the encounter.

But it was wonderful.

To my surprise, the Pope was already familiar with deposit return systems. He told me how, as a child, he would collect empty bottles and return them for pocket money.

During our meeting I presented him with a proposal to introduce a deposit return system in Vatican City and offered to help set it up for the Vatican’s one and only store.

So strangely enough, I have almost no photos of the actual encounter. Even though hundreds of photos were taken by the Vatican photographer and a videographer was present, we had to leave our phones behind and the official images we received are little more than screenshots in which Pope Leo XIV himself has been cropped out.

What we do have are photos of the moments leading up to the meeting and the extraordinary view over Saint Peter’s Square from beside the private library.

In a way it feels almost pre photographic. All I really have are my memories and the Medaglia Pontificia that was given to me to prove we were actually there.

An unforgettable moment after a long solo journey from Oslo to Rome.

Now I sincerely hope it will lead to something tangible: the introduction of a deposit return system in the Vatican in the coming months.



Nice–Rome made possible with the support of these amazing partners:












ml





Tible
ASviS
Krimppp
SecDesk
Erfrechtplanning

21/05/2026

‘Breakfast’ news 📺 this morning

Nice–Rome made possible with the support of these amazing partners:












nl





Tible
ASviS
Krimppp
SecDesk
Erfrechtplanning

21/05/2026

'Breakfast' news this morning!

21/05/2026

Yes, ik heb de paus gesproken, alles voor statiegeld invoering op flesjes en blikjes!

"Gewoon in mijn surfoutfit." Zo is Tinga van plan om vandaag binnen te stappen in de privébibliotheek van het Vaticaan, voor een exclusief gesprek met de paus. "Alleen mag ik geen korte broek aan, dus dat wordt een lange", vertelt hij aan RTL Nieuws. "Maar wel mijn surfschoentjes en T-shirt. Eigenlijk zoals ik op de plank sta."

Lees het interview hier:

Als de paus statiegeld invoert in Vaticaanstad, volgen andere landen vanzelf. Althans, dat is de gedachte van Merijn Tinga. De man die bekend staat als de Plastic Soup Surfer gaat vandaag zijn plan naar hartelust pitchen bij Leo XIV, in de hoop dat er straks een inleverpunt voor blikjes en flesjes k...