A reply from Melati

Dear Parents and students, 

I have already shared this with the students today but thought I'd share it here again. Since Melati's visit almost 2 weeks ago, the students had more questions from the talk. They were genuinely curious to know how the movement started. So, I forwarded the questions to Melati and she kindly responded! 

Here is the text: 

Hi! 

These questions are amazing and so was my time spent with the grade 5's! 

It was truly a pleasure and I look forward to keeping in touch with the school to build and bring Bye Bye Plastic Bags to Kuala Lumpur.

Allow me to answer the questions below: 

1. Was there someone or an issue that was against the movement? When we first started there were many people who believed in what we do. But there are also, always, going to be the people who think otherwise. One of our biggest challenges as young change makers is working with the government and understanding the many layers we needed to get through before seeing change happen. One example is when the paying for plastic policy was introduced across 23 cities in Indonesia in 2016. During the 5 month test phase policy Denpasar city in bali saw a reduction of 45% in the use of plastic bags. THAT WAS HUGE! But they pulled back the policy for revision and since then, nearly 3 years later, the policy has not been re introduced :( which has been frustrating for us.

2. How many people are currently in the team? Our team consists of around 30 students who join us on a volunteer base, contributing as much or as little time and energy as possible. Our youngest team member just turned 9 years old and our oldest one just got his PHD.

3. Where does the garbage go? Whenever we do clean ups we partner up with local grassroots or privately owned waste management facilitates. It is very rare that we will team up with the government to pick up our waste.

4. What was the biggest problem/issue? It is the consistency of keeping the campaign going, the motivation of the team on a long term, and working with governments.

5. If you could go back in time, what would you change about the movement? Hhmmm this is an interesting one! Lots of things to choose from but we would probably have applied earlier for grants and looked stronger for financial support in order to be able to have a stronger foundation for the movement to grow.

6. When the plastic etc was collected, what was done to it? It is first separated, recycled and then some of it is sent to landfill, and some of it is sold back into the industry.

7. Would she consider opening a school? YES! you could say I'm currently working on something similar to a school. Our next project is all about empowering kids like YOU with the tools they need to be change-makers. We hope to have you join us someday.

8. How long did it take for the initial team to grow big? When we first started it was just the two of us, my sister and I. We pulled together our closest friends, and within the first few months we were building our team. Social Media is a huge tool for us to recruit new team members but it took a few years to build our following.

Let me know if you feel like anything is missing! 

Looking forward to what the kids think!! 

Have a great week! 

Pretty cool, huh? 

Ms B