Stop yourself from eating more plastic now!

Do you still remember my #SayNoToPlastic Challenge from earlier? If the issue hasn’t caught your attention yet you’d better listen up now!

Indeed only 9% of the world’s plastic we make is being recycled, and that means 8 million tonnes of plastic waste reach the ocean every year. These statistics are of course quite alarming. Yet what you should be aware of is not only the plastic wastes harboured in our Oceans now, but also in our stomachs. Recent research showed that microplastic particles could be found in the sea salt that we eat daily, as well as our human sewage. What if they are not coming out as stools but as the breastfeeding milk for your baby? While the health risks to our human body is still unknown, the need to #BeTheChange and #SayNoToPlastic is known!

One of our NetMission.Asia alumni, Desiree Ho, has integrated this environmental cause into her passion on dancing. She has choreographed a short dance film <Plastic Soup> in collaboration with the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation to advocate plastic reduction. The film featured 8 young dancers looking back from 2050 with dance moves narrating the hope and grief of our human behaviours. The short film was premiered at the first Hong Kong Eco Film Festival on 17 November 2018. Check out the short film at http://aji.asia/change.

Awareness raising alone will not help the situation if no one acts upon it. The good news is that many governments are already trying to pose a ban on single use plastic or deploying plastic bag tax. For instance, Australia has seen a drastic 80% decrease of their plastic waste since their policy came into effect from late July. We hope there will be many more following suit. Read up more at www.un360.asia.