美国国家公共电台 NPR How Teenage Sisters Pushed Bali To Say 'Bye-Bye' To Plastic Bags

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

We've talked a lot on this program about plastic in the oceans. China is the biggest culprit when it comes to marine¹ plastic, but Indonesia is second. Two young women on Bali are on a mission to change that beginning with plastic bags. Michael Sullivan has this report.

MICHAEL SULLIVAN, BYLINE²: How young are they? Young enough that one of them couldn't make our weekday interview.

MELATI WIJSEN: She's at school.

SULLIVAN: That's 18-year-old Melati Wijsen talking about her Bye Bye Plastic Bags co-founder and 16-year-old sister, Isabel.

WIJSEN: She's just halfway³ through grade eleven, and she's putting her focuses more into graduating high school.

SULLIVAN: The two sisters started Bye Bye Plastic Bags when they were just 12 and 10 years old after a lesson at school about influential⁵ world leaders and change makers⁶, including Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi.

WIJSEN: My sister and I went home that day thinking, well, what can we do as kids living on the island of Bali? See, we didn't want to wait until we were older to start making a difference. It wasn't even a question, really. It was more like, what can we do as kids right now?

SULLIVAN: The answer was right in front of them - literally⁷, on the beach in front of their home.

WIJSEN: You know, it got to the point where at weekends, when we would go to our childhood beach - if we would go swimming, there was a plastic bag that would wrap around your arm. Or running through the rice field, and you're seeing farmers plant on top of plastic. And you say, just enough is enough.

SULLIVAN: A quick online search, she says, revealed that 40 countries in the world had already banned or put a tax on plastic bags.

WIJSEN: We thought, well, if they can do it, come on Bali, come on Indonesia. We can also do it. And so without a business plan, a strategy or a budget, like my mother will tell you (laughter), we went forward with the pure passion and intention to make our island home plastic bag-free.

SULLIVAN: They got some friends together, got online to start a petition and got over 6,000 signatures in less than a day, she says. They never looked back, spreading awareness⁸ through school and community workshops and beach cleanup campaigns, drawing international attention and that of local politicians, too.

WIJSEN: I think one of the biggest tools that pushed us forward was our decision to go on a food strike, which is one of our idol's tools of - how, you know, Mahatma Gandhi, he also had peaceful ways of reaching his goals of getting attention. So that was a huge inspiration for us. And we - within 24 hours, we had a phone call, and then the next day, we were picked up from school and escorted to the office of the governor.

SULLIVAN: He signed a memorandum⁹ of understanding with the sisters to work together toward eliminating plastic and later announced the goal of making Bali plastic bag-free by 2018. That didn't happen. But Wijsen says dealing¹⁰ with politicians in general has taught her some things.

WIJSEN: I always say it feels like dancing like the politician - with the politician. It's, like, three steps forward, two steps back and again and again. And it's almost like the cha-cha. But I learned a lot of different things.

SULLIVAN: The sisters have given a TED⁴ Talk, been invited to the U.N. in New York and spoke¹¹ at last year's IMF World Bank meeting in Bali. And last month, the new governor announced a new law banning single-use plastic on the island, thanks in part to the sister's efforts and those of other like-minded NGOs. Melati Wijsen was thrilled by the news but says there's still lots to be done, spreading the no plastic gospel not just in Bali or Indonesia but across the globe.

WIJSEN: So we're actually now in 28 locations around the world, and it's all led by young people - kids in middle school, high school or university.

SULLIVAN: And that, she says, might be the best part about the journey so far.

WIJSEN: Because this is, you know, where we - we literally prove that kids can do things, and Bye Bye Plastic Bags has become this platform where kids can feel like their voices are being heard. For us, everything is happening in our lifetime, right? So we have to be the ones to start working towards the future and the world that we want to be part of.

SULLIVAN: For NPR News, I'm Michael Sullivan in Denpasar, Bali.

1 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

4 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

5 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

6 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

8 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

9 memorandum   

n.备忘录，便笺

参考例句：

• The memorandum was dated 23 August,2008.备忘录上注明的日期是2008年8月23日。
• The Secretary notes down the date of the meeting in her memorandum book.秘书把会议日期都写在记事本上。

10 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

11 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。