The Lego incident occurred on February 13, 1997
The container ship of Tokyo Transport Company departed from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and sailed 30 kilometers from Lands End, Cornwall, England. At the kilometer mark, we unfortunately ran into a huge wave that is rare to see in a century. The container ship was large enough, but it was still tilted 60 degrees to one side by the huge waves. After returning to its position, it tilted 40 degrees to the other side. After several big bumps, 62 containers on the ship fell into the sea.
One of the dropped containers contained nearly 5 million Lego bricks, which were originally shipped by the Lego company from its factory in Denmark to North America. Five million Lego bricks continued to pour into the sea, and some were washed up on Cornwall beaches by the waves. Nearby residents began to pick up these Lego bricks.
After 5 million Lego bricks were dumped into the sea, she called on netizens around the world to pick them up
Since then, going to the beach to find Lego bricks has gradually become a trend in Cornwall and A great delight for children in both parts of Devon.
Ms. Tracey Williams, who grew up in this sea area, was one of the children who was looking for Lego bricks.
When she was a child, she often went to the beach with her friends and picked up a large bucket of plastic dragons, then took them to a street stall and sold them to others for 10 pence each.
Many years later, Williams grew up, moved his job, and gradually forgot his childhood hobby.
In 2010, Williams moved back to the seaside town in northern Cornwall. Her childhood memories resurfaced. She walked around the beach a few times and soon picked up a bright yellow Lego toy lifeboat. I was surprised to realize that, thirteen years later, I could still pick up Lego bricks on the beach.
For Williams, who has grown up, these plastic blocks still floating in the sea are no longer a childhood fun. They are a huge threat to marine life and the environment.
Williams also discovered that in addition to the large number of lost Lego bricks, there were more toothbrushes, bottles, and rope buoys. Some of them came from nearby ships, and some were from people walking and playing on the beach. Abandoned.
Since then, Williams has started picking up plastic waste in fishing villages and beaches in Cornwall in the name of looking for Lego bricks. The plastic trash she picked up included both trash thrown by people and Lego bricks. Williams was nicknamed Miss Lego by people who knew her nearby.
While picking up, Williams suddenly realized, why not share this idea and let people with the same hobby come to the beach to pick up Lego and clean up the trash at the same time.
So in 2013, Williams created a Facebook group named "Hailun Lego". The group quickly became popular on Facebook, and more and more people flocked to the group. Share the Legos and other fun things they picked up at the beach, as well as the trash they cleaned up.