About Sam Fricker - 'Dive into Clean Oceans'
Sam started an environmentally sustainable company at 16 yrs. He has been diving for the Australian National Diving team, but recently was selected as an Olympic Diver for the Japan Olympic Games 2021. He is also striving to keep our planet clean by creating eco-friendly solutions to single use plastics.
“I’ve always had a dream to make the Olympics, when I came across diving, I fell in love with the sport. Since then, I have represented and won gold medals for Australia bringing me closer to my dream to compete at the Olympic Games Japan 2021. I have been fortunate enough to travel and compete all over the world for Diving. Through my travels I have seen that plastic pollution is not just a problem here in Australia but a global emergency. From my local beach in the Shire of Sydney to the cityscape of Kiev Ukrainian, the beaches of Doha, Qatar and the streets of Berlin, Germany there was clear evidence of plastic pollution all over the globe.”
At the age of 17 he started selling single use wheat straws firstly named Tsarian, now in 2021 re-branded as Sam’s Straws. His goal is to sell the straws all over the World, but taking one step at a time. He currently supply’s Amazon in the USA, Local cafes here in Sydney with his main goal to supply to large commercial business. Sam’s Straws is also perfect for supporting his diving career, because he can run it from any corner of the globe, as long as he has wifi and a computer.
Sam has combined two of his passions in one - environmental sustainability and business.
My journey to environmental awareness
Australia is great at taking initiative to clean up our country, even with just simple things like each household having a recycling bin. I remember in primary school we would have people come in and educate us on the impact we all have on the environment. I believe education is the best way we can protect our environment, most Australians would love to help cut down their environmental impact, but might not know where to start.
We all know about the small things we can be doing to help, like bringing our own bags to the shops, reusable drink bottles and coffee cups and avoiding buying single use plastics.
But there are also some bigger initiatives that we can get involved in, and for me that’s why it was so important to be a part of the answer by coming up with Sam’s Wheat Straws as a solution. I was pleased to hear that our Governments goal is removing all single use plastics in Australia by 2025. We are so lucky here in Australia to have such a beautiful country and people who care for the environment, our oceans marine life and our planet.
World Oceans Day my youth message
As a youth myself I came up with the motto ‘Dive into Clean Oceans.’ This motto remarkably enabled me to be invited by CollaborOCEANS World Oceans Day event onto the iconic Sails of the Sydney Opera House. As a diver I wanted to make it simple and I think my motto says is all. If we want to keep enjoying our oceans, our beautiful and amazing marine life we need to see healthy, clean oceans.
‘Dive into Clean Oceans’ is my motto and as an Australian Olympic Diver my passion is to see marine life protected from plastics being thrown into their habitat.
‘When I was 16, I saw the video of a single plastic straw being removed from the nostril of a green sea turtle. It quickly become viral and was watched by millions. Seeing this turtle in so much agony by our everyday use of plastics straws broke my heart. I felt compelled to do something about it and that is how I founded an eco-friendly plastic free drinking straw company with the help of my Mum.’
Developing Sam’s Wheat Straw product
I was looking into metal straws as a solution to our straw problem and found two things: firstly, the metal straw market is saturated and secondly, we have no solution to single use straws. Plastic straws have terrible effects on our environment, and paper straws are great until you actually put them in your drink. This is when I came across natural wheat straws. Wheat straws have been around for hundreds of years, as farmers would use them after harvesting their grain as it was a by-product.
Once I found this out, I started my research and found some amazing things like they are gluten free and unlike plastic straws, which after hundreds of years break down into micro plastics, wheat straws are biodegradable.
After testing the straws and multiple samples I got to the product we provide today. During the development process, we found out that wheat can vary from B to A+ grade, but if you get low quality wheat the straws won’t work properly. Providing a premium product became paramount to Sam’s Straws, so we only sell the A+ grade straws.
To purchase some of our straws visit our online store
CollaborOCEANS Ambassador | Instagram | www.collaboroceans.org
Good Human Factory Ambassador | Instagram | www.thegoodhumanfactory.com
