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Melati Wijsen: Bali ...

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Island of Gods.

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A green paradise ...

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or, a paradise lost.

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Bali ...

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island of garbage.

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Isabel Wijsen: In Bali,

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we generate 680 cubic meters
of plastic garbage a day.

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That's about a 14-story building.

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And when it comes to plastic bags,

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less than five percent gets recycled.

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MW: We know that changes the image
you may have of our island.

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It changed ours, too
when we learned about it.

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When we learned that almost
all plastic bags in Bali

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that almost all plastic bags in Bali
end up in our drains

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and then in our rivers,

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and then in our ocean.

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And those that don't even
make it to the ocean,

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they're either burned out littered.

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IW: So we decided
to do something about it.

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And we've been working
for almost three years now

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to try to say no to plastic bags
on our home island,

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and we have had
some significant successes.

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MW: We are sisters

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and we go to the best school on Earth.

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Green School, Bali.

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Green School is not only different

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in the way that it is
built out of bamboo,

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but also in the way that it teaches.

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We are taught to become leaders of today.

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Something a normal textbook cannot match.

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IW: One day we had a lesson in class

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where we learned about significant people,

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like Nelson Mandela,

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Lady Diana

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and Mahatma Gandhi.

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Walking home that day,

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we agreed that we also
wanted to be significant.

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Why should we wait until
we were grown up to be significant?

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We wanted to do something now.

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MW: Sitting on the sofa that night,

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we brainstormed and thought
of all the issues facing Bali.

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And the one thing
that stood out to us the most

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was the plastic garbage.

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But that is a huge problem.

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So we looked into what was
a realistic target for us kids.

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Plastic bags.

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And the idea was born.

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IW: We started researching ...

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and let's just say,

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the more we learnt there was
nothing good about plastic bags.

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And you know what?

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We don't even need them.

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MW: We were really inspired

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by the efforts to say no to plastic bags
in many other places.

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From Hawaii to Rawanda,

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and to severals cities
like Oakland and Dublin.

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IW: And so the idea turned into the launch
of Bye Bye Plastic Bags.

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MW: In the years that we
have been campaigning

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we have learned a lot.

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Lesson number one:

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you cannot do it all by yourself.

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You need a big team of like-minded kids,

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and so we formed
the Bye Bye Plastic Bags crew.

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The volunteer team includes children
from all over the island,

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from both international and local schools.

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And together with them,

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we started a multi-layered approach

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based on an on and offline
signature petition,

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educational and inspirational
presentations at schools,

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we raised general awareness
at markets, festivals, beach clean-ups,

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and last but not least,

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we distributed alternative bags.

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Bags like net bags,

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recycled newspaper bags,

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or 100 percent organic material bags,

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all made by local
initiatives on the island.

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IW: We run a pilot village,

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home of 800 families.

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The village mayor was our first friend

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and he loved our T-shirt,

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so that helped.

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We focused on making the customers aware

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because that's where
the change needs to happen.

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The village is already
two-thirds along the way

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of becoming plastic bag-free.

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Our first attempts to get
the government of Bali on board failed.

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So we thought,

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"Hm ... a petition
with one million signatures,

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they can't ignore us," right?

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MW: Right.

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IW: But who would have guessed

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one million signatures is like
a thousand times a thousand?

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(Laughter)

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We got stuck ...

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until we learned lesson number two.

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Think outside the box.

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Someone mentioned that the Bali airport

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handles 16 million arrivals
and departures a year.

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MW: But how do we get into the airport?

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And here comes lesson number three.

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Persistence.

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Off we headed to the airport.

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We got past the janitor.

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And then it was his boss' boss,

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and then the assistant office manager,

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and then the office manager,

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and then ...

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we got shuffled down
two levels and thought,

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well ... here comes the janitor again.

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And after several days
of knocking on doors

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and just being kids on a mission,

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we finally got to the commercial
manager of Bali airports.

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And we gave him
the [bio?] plastic bags speech

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and being a very nice man he said,

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"I cannot believe what I'm about say,

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but I'm going to give authorization

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to collect signatures
behind customs and immigrations."

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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IW: In our first hour and a half there,

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we got almost 1,000 signatures.

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How cool is that?

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Lesson number four:

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you need champions
at all levels of society.

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From students to commercial managers
to famous people.

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And thanks to the attraction
of Green School,

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we had access to a steady
stream of celebrities.

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Ban Ki Moon taught us

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that secretary generals of the United
Nations don't sign petitions.

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(Laughter)

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Even if kids ask nicely.

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But he promised to spread the word

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and now we work closely
with the United Nations.

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MW: Jane Goodall taught us the power
of a people's network.

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She started with just one
Roots & Shoots group

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and now she has 4,000 groups
around the world.

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We are one of them.

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She's a real inspiration.

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If you're a fellow Rotarian,

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nice to meet you.

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We're Interactors,

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the youngest department
of Rotary International.

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IW: But we have also learned much
about patience,

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MW: how to deal with frustrations,

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IW: leadership,

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MW: teamwork,

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IW: friendship,

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MW: we learned more
about Balinese and their culture

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IW: and we learned
about the importance of commitment.

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MW: It's not always easy.

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Sometimes it does get a little bit hard
to walk your talk.

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IW: But last year we did exactly that.

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We went to India to give a talk

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and our parents took us to visit

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the former private house
of Mahatma Ghandi.

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We learned about the power

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of hunger strikes he did
to reach his goals.

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Yes, by the end of the tour,

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when we met our parents again,

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we both made a decision and said,

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"We're going on a hunger strike."

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(Laughter)

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MW: And you can probably
imagine their faces.

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It took a lot of convincing.

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And not only to our parents,

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but to our friends
and to our teachers as well.

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Isabel and I were serious
about doing this.

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So we met with a nutritionist

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and we came up with a compromise

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of not eating from sunrise
to sunset every day

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until the governor of Bali
would agree to meet with us

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to talk about how to stop
plastic bags on Bali.

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IW: Our mogak makam,

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as it is called in Bahasa Indonesia,

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started.

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We used social media to support our goal

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and already on day two,

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police started to come
to our home and school.

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What were these two girls doing?

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We knew we weren't making
the governor look his best

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by doing this food strike.

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We could have gone to jail.

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But, hey ...

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it worked.

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24 hours later,

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we were picked up from school

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and escorted to the office
of the governor.

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MW: And there he was --

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(Applause)

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waiting for us to meet and speak,

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being all supportive

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and thankful for out willingness

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to care for the beauty
and the environment of Bali.

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He signed a promise

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to help the people of Bali
say no to plastic bags.

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And we are now friends,

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and on a regular basis,

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we remind him and his team
of the promises he has made.

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And indeed,

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recently he stated and committed that Bali
will be plastic free by 2018.

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(Applause)

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IW: Also at the International
iIrport of Bali,

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one of our supporters,

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is planning to start
a plastic bag-free policy by 2016.

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MW: Stop handing out free plastic bags,

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and bringing your own reusable bag

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is our next message to change
that mindset of the public.

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IW: Our short term campaign,

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One Island One Voice,

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is all about this.

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We check and recognize
the shops and restaurants

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that have declared themselves
a plastic bag-free zone

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and we put this sticker at their entrance

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and publish their names on social media
and some important magazines on Bali.