July Young Planet Leader Flossie Donnelly
Flossie Donnelly is an 18-year-old climate activist and marine environmentalist from South Dublin, Ireland. Passionate about protecting the ocean since childhood, she began cleaning local beaches at just 8 years old and founded her own environmental charity, Flossie & The Beach Cleaners, at age 11. The group raises awareness about marine pollution and empowers young people to take action against climate change. Collectively, they have collected over 14,700 kg of waste with the help of thousands of volunteers in hundreds of official clean ups.
Flossie is a tireless advocate for ocean health and climate justice. She regularly leads beach cleanups along the Dún Laoghaire and Sandycove coastline and participates in school strikes for climate outside her school and the Dáil. In 2018, she raised €4,000 to bring Ireland’s first seabins—devices capable of removing up to 83,000 plastic bags or 20,000 plastic bottles per year from the sea—into operation.
That same year, she led Ireland’s only March for the Ocean on World Oceans Day and took the stage at TEDx Dún Laoghaire to speak about youth-led environmental action. In 2019, RTÉjr documented her journey to Indonesia’s heavily polluted Citarum River in My Story: The Beach Cleaner, highlighting her work and connecting Irish youth with global environmental challenges.
Flossie believes that protecting our oceans—covering over 70% of the Earth’s surface—is key to fighting climate change, and she brings unwavering positivity to her activism.
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