Jewel+Topsfield+赵青奇

作为白色污染之一的塑料袋难以降解，给生态环境造成了极大的危害。为了限制塑料袋的使用，世界各国都绞尽脑汁，使出各种招数，但真正有所成效的却屈指可数。面对成人甚至是政府都头疼的难题，巴厘岛的一对小姐妹挺身而出，还最终收到了成效。她们究竟是何方高手？又用了什么高招呢？一起走近下文来一探究竟吧！

"Welcome to Bali，" Balinese sisters Melati and Isabel Wijsen chant1）， hands pressed together in the Balinese greeting gesture. "Do you have any plastic bags to declare？" The sisters won't rest until all visitors are asked this question upon arrival at Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport.

Melati and Isabel dream of a day plastic bags will be forbidden in Bali. "We want people to arrive on the Island of Gods and there will be no plastic bags，" Melati says. "Everyone who enters our home would know no plastic bags could be taken in or out."

The Bye Bye Plastic Bags Campaign

Balinese people traditionally only used organic materials leaving no waste behind. But today paradise is lost， the tourists keep complaining and the resort island is swamped2） with rubbish. Small restaurants serve soft drink in plastic bags to save people the trouble of returning empty bottles. Much of the rubbish in Bali is not collected. Some plastic is burnt，acrid3） fumes choking sweaty4） afternoons. Some is simply dumped in rivers. "In Bali we generate 680 cubic meters of plastic a day. That's about a 14-storey building，" Isabel says in their TED talk which they gave last September. "And when it comes to plastic bags less than five percent get recycled."

Three years ago Melati and Isabel， then aged 10 and 12， were inspired by a class on people such as Mahatma Gandhi andPrincess Diana5） at the Green School6） in Bali. "We sat on the couch brainstorming—'What can we do as kids on the island of Bali？" They knew rubbish was a big problem in Bali but it seemed too difficult to deal with. And then they learned that Rwanda had banned plastic bags in 2008. "If one country does that， Bali should get started，" Melati says. "We don't have to wait until we are older to make a difference."

Melati and Isabel formed Bye Bye Plastic Bags with their best friends. They gave talks at schools across Bali and held beach clean-up days. But it was a challenge for them to get the attention of the government. "Being kids， we thought if we get one million signatures， they cannot ignore us， they will have no choice，" Melati says. But， as Isabel points out in the TED talk： "Who would have guessed one million signatures is， like， a thousand times a thousand？" At first it was fun. They would go to shopping malls and events and the signatures increased fast. But on other days they slowed to a trickle7）. "It was tough，" says Melati and Isabel's mother， Elvira. "We calculated it would take one person seven years. They got stuck a little bit. We needed to have an idea out of the box."

Collect Signatures at the Airport

That idea was the Ngurah Rai International Airport. Someone mentioned that the airport handles 16 million arrivals and departures a year. Tourists were the perfect target for the petition8） as it's hard to escape the plastic making oncepicturesque9） rice fields and forests dirty when holidaying in Bali. Remarkably， the commercial manager of the airport allowed the children to collect signatures at the departure gates behind customs10）—an area normally inaccessible for those without boarding passes. "He said， 'I can't believe I'm letting you do this，'" Melati recalls. The access has since been cancelled due to tightened airport security. But they were fun days that helped increase the number of signatures on the petition to 100，000.

Manage to Get Bali's Governor's Support

Every year monsoonal11） rains sweep rubbish onto Bali's beaches. In the past Bali's Governor Mangku Pastika shrugged the annual event off12） as a "natural phenomenon". "This problem is not anyone's fault， but is due to a natural phenomenon that routinely occurs，" he said a couple of years ago.

For one and a half years Melati and Isabel tried to meet him. "We hand delivered letters every day，" Melati says. "We said we want to make him our hero because we know he has the power to do something，" Elvira adds. But in the end it was Mahatma Gandhi who was responsible for the meeting. When the Wijsen family went to India in 2014， they visited the home of Gandhi， because he had been one of the inspirations for Bye Bye Plastic Bags. "He reached his goals with hunger strikes or marches，" Isabel says. "We said， 'Mum， Dad， we are going on a food strike.'"

It took a lot of convincing. "School， teachers， people around the world all thought we were insane，" Melati says. Eventually they reached a compromise. The girls vowed not to eat from dawn to dusk until the Governor agreed to meet them to discuss stopping plastic bags in Bali. The food strike got a huge reaction on social media. On the first day the police came to their home. Melati said the police expected to find the campaign was being run by adults or foreigners. "Other people could have had the intention to put the Governor in a bad light13），" Elvira says. "The girls only wanted to meet， to say hello."

On the second day， Melati and Isabel were summoned to meet the Governor. "He was really supportive towards our cause，" Isabel says. "He said， 'I'm proud Indonesian youth are trying to do something about the environment.'"

Melati says she and Isabel are now on a "high five14） level" with the Governor. Pastika put them in touch with staff from the environment department. "It became regular for me and Bel to miss two days of school to meet the government，" Melati says. "Awareness of the environment in Bali is boiling up15） right now."

Dream Finally Came True

In March 2015， Elvira says they received a letter from the Bali provincial government environmental agency saying Bali would be plastic bag free by 2018. It was a triumphant moment. But the sisters aren't resting on their laurels16）. They are now working on an educational booklet， aimed at elementary school students， filled with information on how to make your own bags， waste management and pollution. "Change doesn't happen if no one is educated，" Melati says.

Through the years， the sisters' remarkable journey has taken them to London， where they were invited to give a TED talk in September， 2015， and to the office of Bali Governor Mangku Pastika， whom they now count as a friend and who appeared in aYouTube video with them. But perhaps most importantly， as Melati says in the TED talk， "along the way， we have learned that kids can do things. We can make things happen".

“欢迎来到巴厘岛！”梅拉蒂·维森和伊莎贝尔·维森这对巴厘岛姐妹一遍遍地重复着这句话，同时双手合十做出巴厘岛的问候手势。“您有没有塑料袋需要申报？”游客一抵达巴厘岛的乌拉·赖国际机场，姐妹俩就会询问他们这个问题，直到问完所有人，她们才会休息。

梅拉蒂和伊莎贝尔梦想着有朝一日，塑料袋在巴厘岛将被禁止使用。“我们希望大家来到这座神明之岛时，这里将会一个塑料袋都没有，”梅拉蒂说，“进入我们家园的每一个人就都会明白，这里是不可以把塑料袋带入或带出的。”

“塑料袋拜拜”行动

巴厘岛人历来只使用不会留下任何垃圾的有机材料，但如今，这一乐土已不复存在，游客抱怨不停，巴厘岛胜地垃圾泛滥。为省去顾客返还空瓶的麻烦，许多小餐馆都用塑料袋来供应软饮。巴厘岛的垃圾大多不会回收：有些塑料制品会被焚烧，刺鼻的烟雾让人在闷热得汗流浃背的下午透不过气来；有些就那么被倾倒进了河里。“在巴厘岛，我们每天会产生680立方米的塑料制品，它们堆起来大概有14层楼那么高，”伊莎贝尔说，“而说到塑料袋，其回收率都不到百分之五。……