This is a great mockumentary about Plastic Bags and their journey to the great Pacific Garbage Patch.
The text that goes with the video reads:
Narrated by Academy Award-winner Jeremy Irons, this “mockumentary” video, hammers home the stark reality of California’s plastic bag pollution situation.
Learn more at http://www.healthebay.org
You can make the difference.
the Billy the plastic bag video is on air on astro TVIQ!
Watch this space …. we’ll up load it soon here !
Are environmental messages lost on the younger generation? Do they take calls to “go green” seriously? Do they recycle, say no to plastic bags, or are they ardent eco-warriors? CHAI MEI LING finds out that many know a lot and are doing their bit to preserve the environment
THEY formed a green group, sold their ideas to a satellite television provider and inked a deal to produce environmental messages for the media. And they are not even out of primary school.
Six children, united by their love for the nature, launched a mission to discourage the use of plastic bags last year.
One of the first things they did was to come up with a simple story detailing the journey of plastic bags, including how they could end up in oceans, killing marine life.
Looking to spread the message of reduced use to as many people as possible, they approached Astro TVIQ, which immediately snapped up the idea, resulting in the creation of a public service announcement video titled “Billy the Plastic Bag”.
In conjunction with Earth Day this April 22, the channel has launched a campaign called “Kids Go Green”, featuring a line-up of on-air content and on-ground workshops to educate children on the importance of environmental conservation and inspire them to do more for the environment.
“Billy the Plastic Bag” will make its rounds during the campaign period.
The children’s original drawings were mostly retained in the finished product, making the animation something other kids can easily relate to.
At a recent press briefing, two of the group members, Isaac Lee Jie Ruen and Gautam Jethwani, narrated the presentation, a feat they had carried out before hundreds of students in their respective schools, SK Sri Hartamas and Garden International School.
Lee said what sparked off the whole idea to deliver green messages was the realisation that rubbish is detrimental to wildlife.
“Gabriel, the founder of our group, showed us a YouTube video about birds dying in Hawaii. Bottle caps, plastic forks, golf balls, toys and lighters were found in their stomach.
“From this, we got the idea to reduce the use of plastic bags, so that less would end up harming the environment,” said Lee, 12.
“It’s actually quite hard to do that because sometimes we forget, but it helps if we put reusable grocery bags in the car or handbag,” added Gautam, also 12.
Astro TVIQ manager Sharifah Noraidah said the group’s enthusiasm was reflective of the campaign’s spirit.
“This is very commendable of them — they came to us, presented the idea to us to see if we can make it bigger. These young environmentalists may be small but they have big ideas. You’ll be inspired listening to them, this message coming from kids to adults,” she said.
“The simplicity of the message is there — start small but be counted.”
The Malaysian Institute of Integrity (IIM) president, Datuk Dr Mohd Tap Salleh, said parents were strong agents of change.
“Children learn from them and emulate their behaviour and beliefs.”
Because of this critical link and because future generations need to be even more disciplined in their consumption of shrinking natural resources, Tap advised parents to adopt greener practices and inculcate them into their children.
“When our children grow up, they will make decisions critical to their future — whether to cut down trees or whether the environment-friendly development should proceed. You decide.”
He said while Malaysia was blessed with a wealth of natural resources, its people were wasteful.
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/articles/30env/Article/index_html
On Saturday 13th March, Kids For Earth departed to Raub to take part in a day long, anti-plastic bag workshop with the Raub Leo club.
Arriving there, they quickly organised ourselves in order of birthdays as a simple icebreaker. Somebody, (not mentioning any names!) completely misunderstood the game and ended up saying the wrong thing (well, it was in mandarin so…).
Being special guests, members of KFE were not sorted into teams, unlike all the other teenagers. However, they decided to participate in the games anyway, all of Kids For Earth being one team (called Kids For Earth, obviously!).
George, Gautam and Gabriel all attempted (and nearly succeeded) to present the Billy the Plastic bag presentation in both mandarin and English. With the help of a translator, they managed to pass the message through and thoroughly entertained everyone!
After that, they took part in a game about degradation where they had to match up how long something took to degrade with its object. The best part was that the 100 PLUS, Chewing gum and banana hadn’t been eaten yet!
Afterwards, Aurelie, the organiser of the day, gave her presentation, again with the help of a translator, about plastic bags and why they where no good. Having looked at the quiz answers in the car, Raphaelle spotted all the fun facts that would be in the quiz such as: The Great Pacific Garbage dump is 4 times the size of Malaysia.
Then, Kids For Earth brought a group of kids downstairs to have the eco-quiz. It was awesome and some of the answers were VERY surprising!
At 12.00, everybody raced to be the front of a long queue. The delicious aroma of nasi lemak drifted around the cafeteria. Everyone gobbled up his or her lunch, all finding that the sambal was EXTREMELY spicy!
At the end of lunchtime, Aurelie asked Kids for Earth to hide pieces of paper around Chong Ching School for the scavenger hunt. Meanwhile, all the teens upstairs were doing a word scramble, earning points for their team.
Next, Raphaelle presented her presentation on Eco-Schools and how to become one. Mandarin subtitles where already on her power point so there was no need for a translator.
Students announced three things they could do to make the school eco-friendly before they had the scavenger hunt.
THAT was a great success and everyone was running around the school, (in the 100*C heat!) searching for well hidden bits of paper while Gabriel, Gautam and George fanned themselves in the shade.
To cool down, Aurelie had organised a 1 hour Art session where everyone had the choice to either design a poster against plastic bags or create a bag out of plastic bags. Both Kids For Earth members and the committee of the Leo club judged the winners.
At the end of the day, everybody was awarded a new Leo club grocery bag and a bookmark. The Leo club members all took a picture.
On the way back to KL, Kids For Earth stopped at a famous ice-cream shop on the road and had some delicious homemade ice-cream (although peanut flavour was very interesting…).
They arrived back home at 7 pm, having spent 12 hours out of their homes. __________________________________________________________
Kids For Earth had a fantastic day and would like to say a special thanks to Aurelie who organised everything, Gautam and George for coming and the members of the Leo Club for participating.
Hello again
I’ve got the presentation videoed (or, put in video format), so its easy to watch.
Here goes:
Hello!
You may remember that waaay back, we did a poster competition amongst Garden and Sri Hartamas.
Thanks to all who participated, you’ll all get a bag!
Response wasn’t as good as we hoped, but we will use the posters for our talks.
Here are the top 5 winners: (in no particular order)
1st July 2008: China bans the distribution of free plastic bags and of bags thicker than 0.025 inches.
China isn’t often viewed as an environmental role model, so this came as a surprise to a lot of people. The ban was made when a lot of people were becoming worried about China’s degrading environment.
Thanks to the ban, it is estimated China has saved 37 million barrels of oil of, as China calls it, the ‘white pollution’. China has also banned the production of thin plastic bags, shutting down the nation’s largest thin plastic bag manufacturer.
The move has sold millions of reusable cloth bags.
China threatened to fine and confiscate the goods of shops caught giving away thin plastic bags.
Raph sells bags!
The Christmas Bazaar was a very successful event, by any standards. For us, it was amazing; we sold over 100 bags, and we have made RM1488.
As promised, we will be donating all profits to the Malaysian Nature Society.
Thank you very much to everyone who helped sell the bags ( Marie, Jessica, Olivia and Alanyah), to Meng Wah (our bag producers) and to YTL, who sponsored the bags.
It was loads of fun, and I hope everyone who helped enjoyed it.
If I can gain permission, I hope to sell the bags in EP, some lunchtime.
Here are the winners for the grocery bag design competition I did waaaay back during the Jalan Bellamy talk.
Thanks to everyone who participated; competition was tough, and all the entries were awesome!
Well done to Vanessa, Jade, Emma, Charlotte, and other Emma.
So, in order, 5th to 1st.
