“Mission Planet” was recreated on linen bags by 23 children during the painted bag competition at the Green Revolution Festival. The children’s artworks that garnered the most likes on the Ecovarna Community Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development’s Facebook page won two bags full of prizes. One is from the Green Movement – an engraved metal cup from ZERA and the #IChooseYourReusableCup campaign, a biodegradable notebook and an “Eco Academy” pen from the Public Center for Environment and Sustainable Development, postcards from the “Ezerets EcoCamp”, a “Zero Waste Ambassador” badge and canvas bags for fruits and vegetables from the “For the Earth” association. And to treat themselves to something tasty – a reusable bag of food from Parkmart.
In the youngest participants – from 3 to 6 years old – the winner was six-year-old Nia Dimitrova. In the 7 to 12 age category, seven-year-old Boril Ralichkov’s creation has won your hearts. In the oldest category (13-18 years old) the prizes go to Magdalena Georgieva, 14.
The “Mission Planet” reusable painted bag competition was held on 3 July – International Plastic Bag Free Day – as part of the Green Revolution Festival. The contest is part of the campaign of the Public Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development #NoBagsNotSie, which takes place on this day in Varna.
The aim is to get people into the habit of shopping with reusable bags. We want to show people how much their every day action makes a difference to protect life on Earth. Let’s start by reducing single-use bags and plastic pollution. Why?
Plastic bags are the most common polythene waste. Plastic waste accounts for 70% of the litter in marine waters.
We use an average of 12 minutes per bag before we throw it away.
They are not recycled- produced from material that cannot be recycled or is uneconomical to do so.
Do not degrade. Break down to 400 g. into tiny particles (micro plastic) that contaminate soil and water and enter the animal and human food chain. Recent research by scientists has found microplastics in 80% of humans, including young children and babies. Microplastics cause damage to human cells, and by entering the body through inhalation, cause millions of early deaths a year.
According to a European directive, we must reduce the use of plastic bags to 40 pcs/person/year by 2025. If we include in the statistics the bags without handles in supermarkets, which the Ministry of the Environment has complicatedly omitted, it will turn out that each Bulgarian currently uses on average more than 200 plastic bags a year.
Degralene bags do not solve the problem. They are again a type of polymer. They just become invisible faster because of their faster degradation
Humanity’s plastic consumer “diet” is impossible for living nature to swallow. And when nature gets sick, we humans get sick too.
Every time you shop with a reusable bag, you win, and the Earth wins. “A bag? #NoMercyWearYou.”