“No Plastic in the Future” – this campaign, which reached more than half a million people in China, was all about promoting a “less plastic” lifestyle.

Between October 2021 and May 2022, we organised various activities to make people aware of just how much they contribute to global plastic pollution and how it affects them. From educating teenage ambassadors and organising painting activities for children, to a marine litter exhibition and a short video competition, the activities helped convey the campaign’s message and motivated thousands of people to change their everyday behaviour. 

AND THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED IN DETAIL:

Creative children and families raise awareness 

We organised art activities for more than 130 families. Parents and their children made paintings based on their ideas for reducing marine litter and plastic waste. The paintings were displayed at the exhibition “No Plastic in the Future”, which was visited by 260,000 people in April and May 2022 in Beijing.

We also invited families to write stories about protecting the environment. With titles including “Life on a Trash Mountain”, “Voice from the Plastic” and “Adventure to Reduce Plastic”, the stories were about reducing plastic and protecting the ocean and were written with and for children. They were published as audiobooks on the platform WeChat. You can listen to them here.

Young ambassadors reach thousands 

Working with the NGO Star Teenager, we encouraged young people to act as ambassadors of marine litter prevention and sustainable consumption. We organised trainings in 50 schools, where teenagers could learn more about plastic reduction and public speaking. Following the training, 144 teenagers gave talks on the street, in schools and across local communities in order to inform people about “less plastic” lifestyles. They inspired 10,000 people to sign flyers of commitment to reduce plastic. 

We also worked with university students – a demographic group with the potential to be heavy consumers – and asked them to produce short videos on plastic reduction and marine litter. We received 120 videos and posted them on the social media platform TikTok, where they have been viewed 120,000 times. A selection of videos is available here.

Action list for plastic reduction

How can we reduce plastic in our daily lives? Across our campaign activities, many people came up with answers to this question – from reusing delivery packages and segregating waste to eating in. We compiled the following “action list” based on the many suggestions:  

Implemented by: Institute of Finance and Sustainability