Melati and Isabel Wijsen

Last updated

Melati Riyanto Wijsen (born 2000) and Isabel Wijsen (born 6 November 2002) [1] are Indonesian climate activists. The two sisters are known for their efforts to reduce plastic consumption in Bali. [2] [3]

The sisters were born in Bali to Dutch and Indonesian parents. [2] [4] In 2013, when Melati was 12 and Isabel was 10 years old, [5] inspired by a lesson about positive world leaders at the Green School Bali, they brainstormed ideas on how to aid Indonesia's problem with plastic pollution, since it is the second worst plastic polluter in the world after China. [6]

When the sisters found out that less than 5% of the plastic bags in Bali were being recycled, They decided to begin their campaign Bye Bye Plastic Bags [2] [7] [8] with the help of other children in the island. In order to gain public attention, the campaign organized cleanups, presentations, and distribution of alternative bags. [9] They organized Bali's biggest beach cleanup in 2018 with 20,000 people who collected 65 tons of waste. [10]

In order to get the government's help, the sisters started a petition in 2015 which would eventually gather 100,000 signatures at the Bali International Airport. It wasn't until they staged a dawn to dusk hunger strike, when they were finally able to successfully arrange a meeting with Bali's then-governor, I Made Mangku Pastika, [2] [7] [8] who promised to make Bali plastic free by 2018.

Bye Bye Plastic Bags is a social initiative and NGO driven by youth to say no to plastic bags. Their message reached stages around the world like TED, CNN, United Nations and the sisters helped build momentum towards the ban on single use plastic bags which finally came into effect in 2018 thanks to the efforts of many like-minded organisations and individuals. The focus of Bye Bye Plastic Bags is in education through the form of workshops, presentations and booklets.

Bye Bye Plastic Bags has expanded to 60 locations around the world with teams led by young people who want to bring the message of saying no to plastic bags globally. They also began another campaign called One Island, One Voice which recognized the restaurants and markets in Bali that committed to being plastic-free.

The sisters believe in encouraging other children to help the world, and as Isabel Wijsen said in 2015:

“To all the kids of this beautiful but challenging world, go for it, make that difference.” [9]

In 2017, the pair spoke at the United Nations World Ocean Day in New York City. [11] [12]

In 2018, the pair were named two of the 25 Most Influential Teens of 2018 by Time magazine. [10]

In 2020, Melati was an invited speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos. [13] [14]

In 2021, a documentary film on Melati Wijsen titled Bigger Than Us was released. [15] [16] [17] The film was directed by French director Flore Vasseur and produced by Marion Cotillard. [16] [17]

Melati is the founder of Youthtopia, a youth empowerment platform, [18] which hosts workshops and training to equip young changemakers to encourage them to make a difference. [19]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bali</span> Province and island in Indonesia

Bali is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller offshore islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nusa Ceningan to the southeast. The provincial capital, Denpasar, is the most populous city in the Lesser Sunda Islands and the second-largest, after Makassar, in Eastern Indonesia. The upland town of Ubud in Greater Denpasar is considered Bali's cultural centre. The province is Indonesia's main tourist destination, with a significant rise in tourism since the 1980s, and becoming an Indonesian area of overtourism. Tourism-related business makes up 80% of the Bali economy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plastic shopping bag</span> Type of shopping bag

Plastic shopping bags, carrier bags, or plastic grocery bags are a type of plastic bag used as shopping bags and made from various kinds of plastic. In use by consumers worldwide since the 1960s, these bags are sometimes called single-use bags, referring to carrying items from a store to a home. However, it is rare for bags to be worn out after single use and in the past some retailers incentivised customers to reuse 'single use' bags by offering loyalty points to those doing so. Even after they are no longer used for shopping, reuse of these bags for storage or trash is common, and modern plastic shopping bags are increasingly recyclable or compostable - at the Co-op for example. In recent decades, numerous countries have introduced legislation restricting the provision of plastic bags, in a bid to reduce littering and plastic pollution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shopping bag</span> Non-rigid container designed to carry household shopping items

Shopping bags are medium-sized bags, typically around 10–20 litres in volume, that are used by shoppers to carry home their purchases. Some are intended as single-use disposable products, though people may reuse them for storage or as bin liners, etc.; others are designed as reusable shopping bags.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kuta</span> Place in Bali, Indonesia

Kuta is a tourist area, administratively an urban village (kelurahan), and the capital of Kuta District, Badung Regency, southern Bali, Indonesia. Kuta is a part of the Denpasar metropolitan area, 12 km (7.5 mi) south of downtown Denpasar. Originally known as a fishing village, it was one of the first towns on Bali to see substantial tourism, and as a beach resort remains one of Indonesia's major tourist destinations. It is known internationally for its long sandy beach, varied accommodations, restaurants and bars, and many renowned surfers who visit from Australia. It is near Bali's Ngurah Rai Airport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waste sorting</span> Environmental practice of separating waste categories to make it easy to recycle

Waste sorting is the process by which waste is separated into different elements. Waste sorting can occur manually at the household and collected through curbside collection schemes, or automatically separated in materials recovery facilities or mechanical biological treatment systems. Hand sorting was the first method used in the history of waste sorting. Waste can also be sorted in a civic amenity site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ratna Sarumpaet</span> Indonesian human rights activist and filmmaker

Ratna Sarumpaet is an Indonesian human rights activist, theatrical producer, actress, film director, and writer. In July 2019 she was sentenced to two years in jail for spreading hoaxes.

A plastic bag ban or charge is a law that restricts the use of lightweight plastic bags at retail establishments. In the early 21st century, there has been a global trend towards the phase-out of lightweight plastic bags. Single-use plastic shopping bags, commonly made from low-density polyethylene (LDPE) plastic, have traditionally been given for free to customers by stores when purchasing goods: the bags have long been considered a convenient, cheap, and hygienic way of transporting items. Problems associated with plastic bags include use of non-renewable resources, difficulties during disposal, and environmental impacts. Concurrently with the reduction in lightweight plastic bags, shops have introduced reusable shopping bags.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plastic pollution</span> Accumulation of plastic in natural ecosystems

Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles in the Earth's environment that adversely affects humans, wildlife and their habitat. Plastics that act as pollutants are categorized by size into micro-, meso-, or macro debris. Plastics are inexpensive and durable, making them very adaptable for different uses; as a result, manufacturers choose to use plastic over other materials. However, the chemical structure of most plastics renders them resistant to many natural processes of degradation and as a result they are slow to degrade. Together, these two factors allow large volumes of plastic to enter the environment as mismanaged waste which persists in the ecosystem and travels throughout food webs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boyan Slat</span> Dutch inventor and entrepreneur

Boyan Slat is a Dutch inventor and entrepreneur. A former aerospace engineering student, he is the CEO of The Ocean Cleanup.

There are various issues of waste management in Thailand, including excessive plastic use, industrial waste, among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 California Proposition 67</span> 2016 California ballot proposition

Proposition 67 was a California ballot proposition on the November 8, 2016 ballot. A "Yes" vote was to approve, and a "No" vote to reject, a statute that prohibits grocery and other stores from providing customers single–use plastic or paper carryout bags but permits the sale of recycled paper bags and reusable bags for a fee.

4Ocean is a for-profit company founded in Boca Raton, Florida, in 2017. 4Ocean retails bracelets made from recycled materials, as well as apparel and other merchandise for which the materials are environmentally- and socially responsibly sourced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">I Wayan Koster</span> Indonesian politician (born 1962)

I Wayan Koster is an Indonesian politician who is the 10th governor of Bali. Before becoming governor, he was a member of the People's Representative Council representing the province.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plastic Soup Foundation</span> Non-governmental organization

Plastic Soup Foundation is a non-profit marine conservation organisation that aims to reduce plastic pollution. Established in 2011, Plastic Soup Foundation advocates towards imposing bans and/or voluntary phase-outs of microbeads in cosmetics at a global scale with the Beat the Microbead campaign.

China's waste import ban, instated at the end of 2017, prevented foreign inflows of waste products. Starting in early 2018, the government of China, under Operation National Sword, banned the import of several types of waste, including plastics with a contamination level of above 0.05 percent. The ban has greatly affected recycling industries worldwide, as China had been the world's largest importer of waste plastics and processed hard-to-recycle plastics for other countries, especially in the West.

Isatou Ceesay is a Gambian activist and social entrepreneur, popularly referred to as the Queen of Recycling. She initiated a recycling movement called One Plastic Bag in the Gambia. Through this movement, she educated women in The Gambia to recycle plastic waste into sellable products that earned them income.

Lilly Platt is a British-born Dutch environmentalist. Platt is known for her youth and for going on peaceful strikes to voice out environmental concerns. She is the Global Ambassador of YouthMundus, Earth.org, and WODI; youth ambassador for Plastic Pollution Coalition and How Global; and child ambassador for the World Cleanup Day. Platt initially went viral on social media after posting litter of plastic she picked up—sorted accordingly. Over the years she has picked up more than 100,000 of pieces of litter.

Flossie Donnelly is an Irish marine environmentalist. A secondary school student, Donnelly was the first to bring seabins to Ireland, securing funds for two of the devices which remove plastic trash from bodies of water. Recently she appeared on RTE News to promote her work.

Tiza Mafira is an environmental activist from Jakarta, Indonesia. She initiated the paid plastic bag policy enforced in supermarkets throughout Indonesia, and the Indonesia Plastic Bag Diet Movement with various organizations to raise awareness of the harms of single-use plastic bags. Mafira received the Ocean Heroes Award from the UN Environment.

<i>Bigger Than Us</i> (documentary) 2021 documentary film by Flore Vasseur

Bigger Than Us is a 2021 French documentary film produced and directed by Flore Vasseur, co-produced by Marion Cotillard, and written by Vasseur and Melati Wijsen. The film made its world premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival in the special section Cinema for the Climate on 10 July 2021. It was released theatrically in France by Jour2fête on 22 September 2021. It was nominated for the César Award for Best Documentary Film in 2022.

References

  1. ↑ @byebyeplasticbags (November 6, 2018). "Happy sweet 16th birthday to our smiley co-founder !! @isabel.wijsen we are so happy to have you back on Bali❤️🙏" – via Instagram.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Paddock, Richard C.; Laula, Nyimas (July 3, 2020). "After Fighting Plastic in 'Paradise Lost,' Sisters Take On Climate Change". The New York Times– via NYTimes.com.
  3. ↑ Svitak, Adora (February 25, 2020). Speak Up!: Speeches by young people to empower and inspire. White Lion Publishing. ISBN   9781781319512 – via Google Books.
  4. ↑ "These sisters dream of a plastic-free world". The New Indian Express.
  5. ↑ "Bali fights for its beautiful beaches by rethinking waste, plastic trash". Science. October 14, 2019.
  6. ↑ Prisco, Jacopo (2017-08-17). "The teenagers getting plastic bags banned in Bali". CNN. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
  7. 1 2 "How Teenage Sisters Pushed Bali To Say 'Bye-Bye-Bye' To Plastic Bags". NPR.org.
  8. 1 2 "'Wonder Girls': How girl-led activists are changing the world". ABC News.
  9. 1 2 Wijsen, Melati and Isabel (2016-01-29), Our campaign to ban plastic bags in Bali , retrieved 2023-02-21
  10. 1 2 "TIME's 25 Most Influential Teens of 2018". Time. 2018-12-07. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
  11. ↑ "Melati and Isabel Wijsen - World Oceans Day 2017". 9 June 2017.
  12. ↑ Prisco, Jacopo (17 August 2017). "The teenagers getting plastic bags banned in Bali". CNN.
  13. ↑ Thomas, Daniel (January 21, 2020). "Being a teen activist 'is a lot of responsibility'". BBC News.
  14. ↑ "Aktivis Remaja Indonesia, Melati Wijsen, Masuk Daftar Davos 2020".
  15. ↑ "Bigger Than Us". jour2fete.com.
  16. 1 2 Keslassy, Elsa (May 9, 2019). "Marion Cotillard Steps Behind Camera for 'Bigger Than Us' (EXCLUSIVE)".
  17. 1 2 Argemi, Anna (April 5, 2019). "'Bigger Than Us': retrato de jóvenes 'rebeldes con causa'". El País– via elpais.com.
  18. ↑ "Meet 23 Young People Leading Resilient Recovery in the Decade of Action — Melati Wijsen & Isabel Wijsen".
  19. ↑ "This teenager has a plan to mobilize young people everywhere". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.