It’s inspiring to once again have witnessed the power of the people successfully working for a common cause. In this case, for International Coastal Cleanup Day 2018, which took place on September 15.
What started over 30 years ago, with just two individuals and their idea to bring people together with the common goal of removing trash from our beaches, has turned into a true global movement.
Today’s guest blog is from Héctor Loyola, co-founder of Qactus and communications director.
Qactus is a company that merges two worlds as never before: plastic waste and 3D printing technology.
3D printing came to shake up the way things are produced and bought, since it allows to manufacture objects locally, in a customized way and at low costs. Its 25% annual growth indicates that it will be one of the main technologies in the near future and an important source of opportunities for industries as distant as health, fashion or food.
For decades, art and other forms of creative expression have served as powerful forms of dissent and protest on any number of social and political issues.
We can look to Picasso’s “Guernica” painting, which was based on the Spanish Civil War and captured its atrocities and inhumanity, serving as an inspiration for the modern human rights movement. To Diego Rivera’s powerful murals that spoke out in support of the working class. The Civil Rights photography of Gordon Parks. And today you can certainly get your fill of protest through the street art of Banksy; the eclectic creative output of Chinese dissident, Ai Wei Wei; or the music performances of Pussy Riot.
Today’s guest blog comes from Nicholas Rodchenko-Highfield, an 11-year-old student from Chinese International School in Hong Kong.
The planet has a variety of different elements: fire, earth and water are the three main elements.
The one that fascinates the the most is water. So delicate and gentle, yet able to break through mountains. The ocean also hosts a variety of wondrous creatures and breathtaking places. Unfortunately, a new foe has risen up against the ocean. Homo sapiens. Humans. We pose a greater threat than anything. Our weapon is trash. I wrote this to tell you why I love the ocean and why it needs to be saved.
What do we do when someone tells us something we believed to be true is false?
That’s where we find ourselves now with our relationship with plastic. Plastic is great because we thought it made our lives easier, affordable, healthier…. and it just disappeared. Unfortunately, our plastic waste does not disappear. It doesn’t return to the earth in a neutral form – it only continues to pollute our water sources and soil like a disease.
Our global executive director, Julie Andersen, joined Andrew Castle on his popular talk show on the UK’s leading commercial radio broadcaster, LBC in London. The topic of conversation was the recently proposed bottle return scheme for the UK, along with general discussion on the overall problem of plastic pollution and how we solve the problem.
When you arrive in Rwanda at Kigali airport you will see a large sign reading, “Use of non-biodegradable polythene bags is prohibited”. That’s right, the country as a whole has banned the use of plastic bags. After the Rwandan genocide, authorities have spent time rebuilding the country and contributing to its economic progression to what it is today. Rwanda is probably Africa’s cleanest nation, and considered one of the most pristine places in the world. It wasn’t the plastic bags themselves that authorities were concerned about, but the ways in which they were being disposed of that was creating controversy. The majority of the plastic was being burned after use that released harmful and toxic pollutants throughout the air. Aside from the burning, the plastic was often disposed improperly and would cause flooding from clogging the country’s drainage systems.