In this Green Element Podcast episode, host Will Richardson interviews Ben Battell, founder of Bahasa of the Sea, a UK‑based brand that creates sustainable alternatives to common plastic items such as bamboo toothbrushes, reusable water bottles, and coffee cups. Battell explains how a stark contrast between pristine Australian beaches and plastic‑laden Bali shores inspired him to launch a business focused on ocean health. He describes the brand’s purpose, product line, and the values that guide it—particularly integrity and a pledge to donate 1% of profits to Surfers Against Sewage. The conversation covers how Bahasa works directly with suppliers to eliminate plastic packaging, opting for tissue‑paper wraps, and how simple, clear communication is the biggest challenge in encouraging consumers to adopt sustainable swaps. Battell shares tactics for scaling impact, including social‑media campaigns, beach clean‑ups, collaborations with filmmakers for charity film nights, and networking within surf and yoga communities. He emphasizes the importance of starting conversations to catalyze change and provides listeners with contact details (Instagram @bahasaofthesea, website bahasa.co.uk with a discount code). The episode also includes a sponsor plug for 51tocarbonzero, and closing calls to action for the Green Element community.
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Hi Ben, welcome to the show. Thank you very much for coming in today, or, well, coming in, being on the remote kind of podcast interview. Yeah, so welcome.
Thanks, Will. Not a problem. Thanks for having me. Yeah, good to chat.
Well, why don't we start off with if you could tell us a bit about your business, what's your purpose, and who you work with?
Sure, sure. So Bahasa of the Sea is a concept that I came up with back in January. I've just got back from a few months in Bali following living in Australia, Melbourne, Australia. And I think the first thing that struck when I got to Bali was the stark contrast from the beaches. I surf a lot, so being on the beach in Australia, really clean, pretty pristine as it goes. And then you get to Bali, and especially in the wet season, paddling out sort of through all this muck and this plastic and your hands hitting plastic bags, and you see the sea life popping up through all this, and it was pretty disgusting, to be fair.
Hmm.
So I got back to the UK following that, and I thought, I've got to do or start something that is a sustainable business that promotes ocean health and awareness of these problems and these issues, and really just help people to make small, easy changes in their lives to kind of promote the health of the ocean and the ocean environment, really. So I got back, started with creating sort of Bahasa brand and the logos and the branding for the toothbrushes as a sort of first intro product that was quite obvious that, you know, you see these kicking around the beach everywhere, plastic toothbrushes. I thought, let's get the bamboo ones in. Sort of something I'd seen in Australia as well as a concept. And I thought, yeah, it'll work perfectly to get Bahasa off the ground. And then from there, we've gone to sort of water bottles and coffee cups and things like that. And, um, yeah, sort of just been promoting that around the people that I know in surf industry and yoga industry as well. So kind of working with those people because I found the values aligned quite closely to the companies really from the start.
Yeah, brilliant. We, um, we actually got given the Australian bamboo toothbrushes a few years ago.
I think they're a little bit ahead of us in many ways in terms of sort of sustainability and their kind of thoughts on plastic and things from what I've seen when I've been out there and So it's a real dichotomy out there, isn't it?
Or is dichotomy the right word? A real kind of difference, because in some respects the Australians are really unenvironmental.
In terms of their cars and their fuels and stuff like that, yeah. But then in terms of kind of the way they try and live their lives, that outdoor— I think because they've got that outdoor lifestyle, they're exposed to it a lot more than we are. Whereas, you know, the whole of our winter we're inside, whereas they don't really spend a lot of time, don't have that outside the environment and maybe more change sometimes.
Yeah. So what would you say your business superpower was?
So for me, it's integrity. So it's actually caring about the environment and trying to be truthful, open, and honest with our products and with our sort of ethos as well. You know, it says on the side of our brush packets, reduce, reuse, recycle, upcycle. And I think that is is key for us really in sort of promoting the business and promoting what we do and promoting that to everyone else as well. From the sort of very start, we've always had a pledge to donate 1% of all our profits to charities that support the reduction and removal of plastic waste from the sea as well, and currently working with Surfers Against Sewage for that. So sort of profits down the line will be donated to them to help their cause, which is obviously a really good one. Actually, for them, it's really good as well because they've been in the media recently and sort of working with the Prince's Trust and things like that. So a very good, very, very good charity to have. And yeah, so integrity really is what it comes down to, just being honest, being open, and spread that word around. Everyone really.
Rock that, that's brilliant, that's awesome. Tell us a bit about how you engage your staff, suppliers, and customers with your mission and purpose.
Yeah, so I think the first thing that I always do is just be sort of upfront with suppliers. So for example, with our bottles, when first speaking to suppliers, they offer the sort of package that they normally would do for packaging their products is everything comes in a plastic wrap inside the box and then it's sent out after it's made and things like that. And the first thing I said to them was, look, I want absolutely no plastic anywhere near this product. So sort of working with them, they were actually really happy and really sort of helpful in that term. So everything now, all our bottles and our cups come wrapped in a— what do we call it— tissue paper, and then that's inside the box there. So it sort of keeps it nice and safe, keeps it pristine, but also doesn't have that plastic waste that is associated with so many products that you see these days. So I think the sort of takeaway I always get from that is actually just ask. Because it's sometimes as simple as a question for people to sort of make a change or be able to help you out with your brand and your sort of goals and things like that as well.
Yeah, I hear you on that. Just, it's amazing how often just quickly asking a question helps enormously when I think in the past I would possibly wouldn't have done, and that may have been through naivety or through not being completely confident in myself as well.
Yeah, I think knowing what you want as well really helps, doesn't it?
Yeah.
Knowing where you're going with a product helps, and then you sort of ask the questions that actually probably help other people understand what you want as well, and then it's sort of you work together towards that common goal.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So when it comes to running an ethical and sustainable business, what has been your biggest struggle so far, and can you tell us a bit about how you've overcome it?
Yeah, sure. I think for us, the struggle has always been about sort of communication. How do you get the message across to everyone? So I think the vast majority of people are ready to make the change to become sustainable or become more ethical and things like that. But it's really realizing that those simple swaps they can make in their daily lives are impactful and they do make a big difference. Trading out your morning coffee cup for one that's not going to be thrown away after you've had your 5 minutes time with it, or especially in these heats, you know, taking a water bottle with you that you can refill at the pub or using one of the refill stations that are sort of cropping up everywhere. And so just trying to get people to understand that they make a difference. A sort of example we use, because of the toothbrushes we use, is that every person uses round about 3 toothbrushes a year. And if you multiply out that over the 80 years of a life, you've got 240 brushes. And that's just one person. So you sort of really put that on a scale, you know, you think about all your friends, and then that suddenly just adds up and adds up and the numbers get huge. And so you're like, well, we should obviously switch to bamboo or another alternative sustainable toothbrush. And so you've got those huge savings there. And it's really just trying to—
Yeah.
The struggle of communicating that to people in a simple and easy to understand way. Because I think a lot of the time, There's these huge numbers thrown out that it's hard to sort of put a scale on them and sort of actually see them as affecting you. When it happens across a large sort of number of people saying, you don't use a plastic straw, and a billion people said, let's not use it, no one really knows what a billion looks like.
Yeah.
Well, if you and your friends don't use this, this is how many it is. It comes across a lot better. And the way we've sort of tried to do that so far is with sort of social media campaigns and speaking to a lot of people as well. And going forward in the future, we're going to be running some beach cleans and also working with some other great filmmakers, so Brother Film Co. and a friend of ours called Rich Maskey, to hopefully put on some charity film nights to document the sort of issues and promote healthy and sustainable lifestyles, but then also try and combine that with films about documentaries of the local area as well. So it doesn't just seem like it's a foreign problem. It feels like it's something that can be understood by people wherever we're showing these films, things like that as well.
Have you spoken to, or do you know Tsukiko Matthews?
No, I don't know.
She's on the Green Elements Facebook group. She's just cycled around the UK. and she's getting sponsorship for it, um, doing beach cleanups.
Oh, fantastic.
She may well be a really good person for you to network with. I'll do that after the show.
Thank you. Yeah, that'd be really good.
She's brilliant. She's a force for good. And yeah, a force.
I think it's really nice sort of projects like that, um, where there's like a really nice goal as well around cycling and promoting beach cleans. Everyone seems to get behind all those sort of— there was a girl, I can't remember her name now, that paddled The length of the UK, or Land's End to John o' Groats. She paddled it and was, yeah, doing big things.
As in on SUP or on canoe?
On a SUP, yeah.
Okay, oh cool.
I'll have to let you know afterwards and put it in the show notes.
Yeah, that'd be brilliant. SUP being stand-up paddleboard for those.
Yes, exactly.
If you could offer one piece of advice to our listeners which could help them with their purpose, what would that be?
For me, it's got to be talk to everyone you can. Just start the conversation, and that can really help you to begin to make the changes that you want. Because as I said previously, people are very receptive to these ideas, and sometimes they just need the catalyst of someone speaking to them or mentioning something or saying something to actually get these ideas to come into fruition. I think that's really important. So yeah, just start the conversation and You'll sort of open up so many doors, you'll be amazed.
Oh cool, okay. And so finally, what's the best way we can connect with you, learn more? You know, have you got anything to talk about with what you're doing?
Yeah, so best way to connect with us is probably on Instagram, which is @bahasaofthesea, which is spelled B-A-H-A-S-A and then of thesea, spelled Obviously. And then on our website as well is bahasa.co.uk. And if the listeners want to go there, get 15% off, if you go bahasa.co.uk/greenelement, there'll be a sign up there and you can join our mailing list and get 15% off across the course.
That's great.
Start the journey.
That's awesome. Thank you. Thank you.
Yeah, not a problem.
Thank you very much for your time today, Ben.
And thank you, Will.
Look forward to hearing more about what's going on.
Excellent, thanks.
Thanks so much for listening.
We created this podcast for you, so we'd really appreciate any feedback you want to give us. You can do that by rating and reviewing on your favorite podcast, or for iTunes, visit www.greenelement.com. If you'd like to keep in touch, then we invite you to join our free Facebook community, which is everything to do with sustainable and ethical business. Lots of daily conversations, themes, and great ideas. A really great place to work and network with like-minded individuals. If you open Facebook and search for The Green Element, hit the group search function, we will let you right in. All of the show notes, any links, any references to the— on this podcast will be featured on our website greenelement.co.uk. As a special thank you for listening, please head over to www.greenelement.co.uk/podcast2018 and you can pick up a free guide on how to green up and environmentalize your business or organization. That's greenelement.co.uk/podcast2018. Finally, I would like to thank Ben Chapman for writing the fantastic opening music. He is an amazing artist with a phenomenal following. It was a privilege he said yes to even write it for us. We look forward to seeing you next week and hope you have a wonderful day.
