Kids for Earth

This presentation was much more akward than the JB presentation; French is not my schooling language, and some of the words were abit akward; I’d say the word quietly (and probably wrongly) and continue speaking! However, it was well recieved by the kids (or so I was told) and I think I took my mistakes with enough humour for them to be largely ignored by the kids. They were very attentive, and all in all, I’m very happy with it.

Merci Julie, pour m’avoir aider, et d’avoir ete tellement encourageante; sans toi, je n’aurais pas pu faire la presention!

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All 500 bags arrived one day early. Here are some pics I took of one:

The reviews are all very positive:

Vorace the Vinegar Bottle: “This bag is great! Absolutely brilliant! No more clanking and knocking when I’m carried around. And, being a glass bottle, this bag is absolutely perfect for me!”

Moby the Milk Carton: “… (This bag) is much more useful than normal bags; here, we cannot fall and leak, and we are much more comfortable.”

Wally the Water Bottle has refused to comment because he is too comfortable in the bag.

Clink and Clonk the Cans: “Two can fit in a section! It’s incredible how flexible this bag is; it is only intended for bottles, but we fit inside too!”

The bags can be bought at the EP summer fair this Sunday for 10 RM each. 

Our second venue will be to some thirty people in the French school, but one vital change is that we should theoretically be able to give out free grocery bags. (I’m checking the prices, but I think it would be possible.) I’ll be showing the same thing as in JB, but this is like proof to me that we are growing. (It’s very gratifying!)

Yes! Our first grocery bags are to be picked up this Friday – all 500 of them. They’ll be sold at the summer fair. They’re actually very original – they are bottle bags, with six compartments to insert bottles – wine bottles, vinegar bottles, ketchup bottles. Actually, you can even put in cans and milk cartons! They are very cool (an you really need one).

Thanks to Ms Smiles for letting us use her bags as a model.

Our first talk venue was in Jalan Bellamy, the Alice Smith Primary campus in Kuala Lumpur. I think we did great! We got lots of positive feedback from the teachers, and I offered the children a grocery bag design competition where they could design their own bags. The response for that was also really really good! Here’s the presentation I showed at JB.

Slide 1: shown as people come in. Introduce Kids For Earth. Introduce plastic pollution

Slide 2: … and to tell you more about plastic pollution, I want you to meet my good friend, Billy the plastic bag.

Slide 3: As a young bag, Billy had a very fulfilling life as a plastic bag. He caried the groceries from the shops to his home.

Slide 4: Billy was a happy plastic bag.

Slide 5: But then, after being used for just fifteen minutes…

Slide 6: … he’s thrown away!

Slide 7: Poor Billy…

Slide 8: But soon, Billy realised he was not alone

Slide 9: In fact, there were trillions of others just like him! But what happens to these trillions of plastic bags? I’m pretty certain they don’t just dissapear. Well, lets imagine we are the trillions of plastic bags. I’ll need three volunteers for this. (To first volunteer) You are the lucky one! you will be recycled into a more permanant grocery bag! (If possible hold up recycled plastic grocery bag) (To second and third volunteers) You two aren’t so lucky. You will be reused and reused and reused until you look like this (Hold up torn up plastic bags) and then, you will join the rest of us in the garbage truck, with Billy.

Slide 1o: (Look at screen) Oh wait! Not with Billy: He’s fallen out!

Slide 11: Blown by the wind…

Slide 12: He falls into the sea.

Slide 13: Being plastic, he doesn’t sink: he just floats about and follows the currents, where he meets many animals, such as Mr Jellyfish and Mr Shark.

Slide 14: But Billy isn’t a happy plastic bag anymore.

Slide 15: In fact, he’s downright angry! He can’t understand what he’s done to deserve this! Billy wants revenge!

Slide 16: And so, Billy becomes the most known serial killer in the seven seas. His name sends shivers down animal’s spines. All over the world, he commits brutal murders: he kills a swan in Asia, a turtle in Melbourne, and in the middle of the ocean, he hangs onto a dolphin so it can’t swim.

Slide 17: Billy’s well into his list of killings. He’s killed penguins, seals, albatrosses, and even cows!…

Slide 18: When he begins to break up! He gets smaller and smaller, but he remains a plastic particle. He never becomes part of nature.

Slide 19: Billys abit lonely, so he joins the POP gang. The POP gang is made up of chemicals that don’t belong in the ocean. More often than not, they were dumped there by man.

Slide 20: They find their ways into the food chain, which is where they become a problem, as some POPs are poisonous. And as one scientist said: what goes into the oceans goes into the animals,…

Slide 21:…which goes onto our dinner plate.

Slide 22: But don’t feel bad for Billy; he ended up on one of the many plastic beaches littering our world’s shores.

(Animation 1) Such as this one

(2) Or this one, in Hawaii

(3) And Billy’s friends can wait to degrade on these coral reefs

(4) And finally, this beach. Notice the date (5): 2006. Since then, plastic pollution has increased tenfold. That’s this beach’s pollution doubled. And that doubled, and that doubled, and doubled, and doubled, and doubled, and doubled, and doubled, and doubled, and doubled. Imagine this beach today.

Slide 23: And when Billy wants to go for a swim, he has the whole ocean… but most of his friends are here, in te Great Pacific Garbage Dump. An area that reaches from Hawaii to Japan, nearly completely devoid of life.

Slide 24: So what can you do?

Slide 25: Well, the easiest step is to bother and bug and pester your parents to stop using plastic bags and to buy grocery bags. Over and over again, reming the, and I promise they will listen.

Slide 26: And after having bought the grocery bags, please don’t leave them at home. Keep them in your car, or folded up in your rucksack.

Slide 27: Every year, 100,000 of sea birds and 100,000s of marine mammals get entangled in plastic pollution, and if you stop using plastic bags, you will help save them. So on their behalf, thank you.

If you would like to show this presentation in your school or workplace, please contact me at gabisayshello@gmail.com and will do my best to help you.