12-year-old activist wages ‘war’ on plastic
BANGKOK: Skipping school to glide through a dirty Bangkok canal on a paddleboard, Lilly fishes out rubbish in her mission to clean up Thailand, where the average person uses eight plastic bags every day.
“I am a kid at war,” the 12-year-old says. “I try to stay optimistic but I am also angry. Our world is disappearing.”
Thailand is the sixth largest global contributor to ocean pollution, and plastic is a scourge.
Whether it’s for wrapping up street food, takeaway coffees or for groceries, Thais use 3,000 single use bags per year - 12 times more than someone from the EU.
In June, Lilly won her first victory: she persuaded Central, a major supermarket in Bangkok, to stop giving out plastic bags in its stores once a week. “I told myself that if the government did not listen to me, it would be necessary to speak directly to those who distribute plastic bags,” she explains.
This month some of the biggest brands, including the operator of 7-Eleven convenience stores, pledged to stop handing out single-use plastic bags by January next year.
Mindsets have started to shift this year with the deaths of several marine mammals due to plastic.the demise last month of a baby dugong was mourned on social media and revived discussion over a proposed ban on most single-use plastics by 2022. But critics say along with new rules there need to be enforcement mechanisms. For now young activists like Lilly can help capture attention.