Christoph Schulz

WHEREFORE I FIGHT

My story

For many years now, I have been actively involved in protecting our planet and all the creatures that roam it. But of course, this was not always the case. After completing my training as a banker and studying multimedia marketing, I was initially quite surprised to discover that I lacked a real, long-term goal in life. What do I actually want to achieve, what do I want to stand up for and what is my mission in life? I didn't have an answer yet - but I wanted to find it.

THIS ONE MOMENT IN SRI LANKA

With a Backpack trip in Sri Lanka, I gave myself 3 weeks to find the answer. Already during my first casual beach run in Arugam Bay, a wave of individual flip flops, crumpled straws, cups, juice packets and lots of disposable plastic bottles washed towards me. On one of these plastic bottles - still easy to read - was an expiration date of 1986. The contents had, of course, long since been enjoyed - but the bottle itself still looked as if it had been carelessly thrown into the water just a few days ago. 

While questions like "How come the bottle still looks so brand new?" or "What is the cause of the garbage wave?" and raced through my head, I first got myself some garbage bags and started cleaning up. Not just the one wave, but all the rest of the disposable trash I could find on the beach. Barely twenty minutes later, there were four of us. A local resident and two tourists packed with. Only 2 hours, six more participants and twelve bulging garbage bags later, the beach then looked again as one knew it from the typical vacation catalogs. A really satisfying moment. The trash then disappeared at a local recycling company that I had contacted after our action.

But the questions in my head kept piling up: "Why hasn't anyone done anything, even though this garbage has obviously been sloshing back and forth here for decades?" and "To what extent am I actually part of this problem?" After a well-earned after-work beer with the helpers, I started researching on the laptop: Plastic is eternalbecause it is not biodegradable. It's remarkable that I didn't know that until then. I also found out that a plastic bottle takes about 450 years to decompose into smaller microplastics due to sun, wind and waves. No one had done anything about it because disposable plastic is a fixed, convenient part of our habits and the garbage is ubiquitous. Garbage that I also produce at home in large quantities - and that is also exported from Germany mainly to Asian countries without functioning recycling systems. 

So I had found all the answers to my questions. Also to the very big one concerning my life's task. I had understood that it is not enough to hope that someone else will already save our planet. Because if you want change, you have to be part of the solution to the problem yourself. And that's why I organized more cleanups in Sri Lanka for the rest of my trip at the beginning of 2017. Since then, I have drastically reduced my personal plastic waste and am now actively engaged against plastic waste in the environment and meanwhile also all other, ecological and social challenges of our time - and show here at CareElite how each of us can live more plastic-free and sustainable.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED SINCE THE TRIP

In such a short time, my life has changed in an incredibly positive way. CareElite is growing and growing. Instead of working hours of 9am - 5pm in a job I only do to make money, I now get to dedicate myself daily and full time as a self-employed person to raising awareness for a more sustainable society. And earn my living with a task for which I burn. New doors opened up all the time. I even get to advocate for environmental issues regularly on TV, in podcasts, and in newspapers and magazines. By the way, if you want, you can also learn more about me in the media articles. 

While at the beginning of my self-employment I flew to many other countries in Southeast Asia to organize and support further clean-up campaigns against plastic waste, I now try to more from Germany about my growing community to move. This worldwide Facebook group for Beach CleanUps allows me to motivate and bring people together even from home. Through my work for environmental protection and my love for animals, after a short initial resistance based on my longstanding habits, I now also live vegan. A step that has made me much happier, as I now live in accordance with my personal values - and no more animals are killed for my lifestyle.

Nobody has to do everything perfectly in his life - it is simply important to constantly evolve and strive for an increasingly environmentally friendly way of life. After all, we ourselves must be the change we want to see in this world.

Stay sustainable - and have fun at CareElite!

PS.: If you like, you can directly download download one of my e-books for free and thus start a more sustainable everyday life.