World Earth Day, vs. Plastics, Take Action!

World Earth Day, celebrated every April 22nd, is a festival specially set up for world environmental protection. It aims to raise awareness of existing environmental problems, mobilize people to participate in the environmental protection movement, and improve the earth’s environment through green and low-carbon lifestyle promotion. This year is the 55th Earth Day, focusing on plastic, the theme is “Planet vs. Plastics.”

With the platform of Earth Day, Shanghai Roots & Shoots has partnered with numerous schools to conduct a range of educational activities. These initiatives are designed to empower students, our future leaders, to better understand the plastic pollution problem and encourage them to take practical actions to protect the earth. 

On April 16, Shanghai Roots & Shoots held a popular science lecture on garbage recycling for the first and second-grade children of Shanghai Xiehe Bilingual School (Hongqiao Campus). In the lecture, we focused on the “7R principles” (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Refuse, Rethink, Repair, and Rot) and various ways and methods of garbage recycling. Through vivid examples, it vividly demonstrates to children the harm of plastic waste to our living environment and guides them to realize the importance of actively recycling waste. At the same time, we also interacted with children, encouraging them to actively practice garbage classification and recycling in their daily lives and make small efforts to protect the global environment.  

On April 18, Shanghai Roots & Shoots volunteers gave a lively plastic science class at Shanghai Cao Guang Biao Primary School in Shanghai to fourth-grade students. In class, volunteers showed students various plastic products and guided them to understand and identify common plastics in life. Through plastic degradation experiments, volunteers demonstrated to students the degradation time of different plastics and their impact on the earth’s natural environment. In addition, volunteers also use plastic recycling cases to engage in plastic recycling with students and encourage them to use practical actions to repurpose plastic waste.

On April 18 and April 22, Shanghai Roots & Shoots held garbage recycling carnival activities at Guangzhou No. 115 Middle School and Shanghai Cao Guang Biao Primary School, respectively. We organized several events on the day of the event, such as the Plastic Waste Recycling Challenge, Plastic Recycling Adventure Park, and Plastic Change. We worked with the students to explore ways to reduce the generation of plastic waste on campus, optimize the recycling of plastic waste, reduce the amount of garbage on campus, and more. At the scene, the plastic recycling device “PLASTIC RESPONSE”allowed students to experience the magic of plastic recycling: waste plastic is crushed, heated, and melted into liquid plastic, injected into the mold and cooled, and a “new” plastic handicraft is formed. It was then injected into the mold and cooled to form “new” plastic products. In addition, during the activity, the fourth-grade students demonstrated their understanding of the problem of plastic pollution. They used their voices to call on their community to participate in plastic recycling and contribute to creating a cleaner environment. On April 18 and April 22, Shanghai Roots & Shoots held garbage recycling carnival activities at Guangzhou No. 115 Middle School and Shanghai Cao Guang Biao Primary School, respectively. We organized several events on the day of the event, such as the Plastic Waste Recycling Challenge, Plastic Recycling Adventure Park, and Plastic Change. We worked with the students to explore ways to reduce the generation of plastic waste on campus, optimize the recycling of plastic waste, reduce the amount of garbage on campus, and more. At the scene, the plastic recycling device “PLASTIC RESPONSE”allowed students to experience the magic of plastic recycling: waste plastic is crushed, heated, and melted into liquid plastic, injected into the mold and cooled, and a “new” plastic handicraft is formed. It was then injected into the mold and cooled to form “new” plastic products. In addition, during the activity, the fourth-grade students demonstrated their understanding of the problem of plastic pollution. They used their voices to call on their community to participate in plastic recycling and contribute to creating a cleaner environment. 

As young people are our future communicators and developers of environmental protection, Shanghai Roots and Shoots is committed to cultivating young people’s ecological concepts and developing innovative courses in participatory environmental protection education. Earth Day will ultimately allow students to contribute uniquely to ecological protection. We hope that one day, humanity can walk together in a world without plastic pollution.

Thanks to Walt Disney (China) Co., Ltd and the support of volunteers for this event.