Our campaign to ban plastic bags in Bali

Melati Wijsen: Bali ...

Island of Gods.

A green paradise ...

or, a paradise lost.

Bali ...

island of garbage.

Isabel Wijsen: In Bali,

we generate 680 cubic meters
of plastic garbage a day.

That's about a 14-story building.

And when it comes to plastic bags,

less than five percent gets recycled.

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

It changed ours, too
when we learned about it.

When we learned that almost
all plastic bags in Bali

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

and then in our rivers,

and then in our ocean.

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

they're either burned out littered.

IW: So we decided
to do something about it.

And we've been working
for almost three years now

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

and we have had
some significant successes.

MW: We are sisters

and we go to the best school on Earth.

Green School, Bali.

Green School is not only different

in the way that it is
built out of bamboo,

but also in the way that it teaches.

We are taught to become leaders of today.

Something a normal textbook cannot match.

IW: One day we had a lesson in class

where we learned about significant people,

like Nelson Mandela,

Lady Diana

and Mahatma Gandhi.

Walking home that day,

we agreed that we also
wanted to be significant.

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

We wanted to do something now.

MW: Sitting on the sofa that night,

we brainstormed and thought
of all the issues facing Bali.

And the one thing
that stood out to us the most

was the plastic garbage.

But that is a huge problem.

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

Plastic bags.

And the idea was born.

IW: We started researching ...

and let's just say,

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

And you know what?

We don't even need them.

MW: We were really inspired

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

From Hawaii to Rawanda,

and to severals cities
like Oakland and Dublin.

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

MW: In the years that we
have been campaigning

we have learned a lot.

Lesson number one:

you cannot do it all by yourself.

You need a big team of like-minded kids,

and so we formed
the Bye Bye Plastic Bags crew.

The volunteer team includes children
from all over the island,

from both international and local schools.

And together with them,

we started a multi-layered approach

based on an on and offline
signature petition,

educational and inspirational
presentations at schools,

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

and last but not least,

we distributed alternative bags.

Bags like net bags,

recycled newspaper bags,

or 100 percent organic material bags,

all made by local
initiatives on the island.

IW: We run a pilot village,

home of 800 families.

The village mayor was our first friend

and he loved our T-shirt,

so that helped.

We focused on making the customers aware

because that's where
the change needs to happen.

The village is already
two-thirds along the way

of becoming plastic bag-free.

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

So we thought,

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

they can't ignore us," right?

MW: Right.

IW: But who would have guessed

one million signatures is like
a thousand times a thousand?

(Laughter)

We got stuck ...

until we learned lesson number two.

Think outside the box.

Someone mentioned that the Bali airport

handles 16 million arrivals
and departures a year.

MW: But how do we get into the airport?

And here comes lesson number three.

Persistence.

Off we headed to the airport.

We got past the janitor.

And then it was his boss' boss,

and then the assistant office manager,

and then the office manager,

and then ...

we got shuffled down
two levels and thought,

well ... here comes the janitor again.

And after several days
of knocking on doors

and just being kids on a mission,

we finally got to the commercial
manager of Bali airports.

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

and being a very nice man he said,

"I cannot believe what I'm about say,

but I'm going to give authorization

to collect signatures
behind customs and immigrations."

(Laughter)

(Applause)

IW: In our first hour and a half there,

we got almost 1,000 signatures.

How cool is that?

Lesson number four:

you need champions
at all levels of society.

From students to commercial managers
to famous people.

And thanks to the attraction
of Green School,

we had access to a steady
stream of celebrities.

Ban Ki Moon taught us

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

(Laughter)

Even if kids ask nicely.

But he promised to spread the word

and now we work closely
with the United Nations.

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

She started with just one
Roots & Shoots group

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

We are one of them.

She's a real inspiration.

If you're a fellow Rotarian,

nice to meet you.

We're Interactors,

the youngest department
of Rotary International.

IW: But we have also learned much
about patience,

MW: how to deal with frustrations,

IW: leadership,

MW: teamwork,

IW: friendship,

MW: we learned more
about Balinese and their culture

IW: and we learned
about the importance of commitment.

MW: It's not always easy.

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

IW: But last year we did exactly that.

We went to India to give a talk

and our parents took us to visit

the former private house
of Mahatma Ghandi.

We learned about the power

of hunger strikes he did
to reach his goals.

Yes, by the end of the tour,

when we met our parents again,

we both made a decision and said,

"We're going on a hunger strike."

(Laughter)

MW: And you can probably
imagine their faces.

It took a lot of convincing.

And not only to our parents,

but to our friends
and to our teachers as well.

Isabel and I were serious
about doing this.

So we met with a nutritionist

and we came up with a compromise

of not eating from sunrise
to sunset every day

until the governor of Bali
would agree to meet with us

to talk about how to stop
plastic bags on Bali.

IW: