Melati & Isabel Wijsen from Bali fight against plastic bags – two teenagers with a great vision

Two sisters from Synthetic material formally revolutionized the industry. It was the new material that filled society with a sense of elation in the 1950s and 1960s: indestructible, never rotting or rusting, so light and colorful and beautiful.

The fairy tale slowly but surely mutated into a horror movie. The beautiful new plastic world has a firm grip on our real world. There hardly is a place where no remains of plastic can be found. Mostly easy to recognize, because it is still pretty colorful.

You may remember the image from the ‘beautiful’ Caribbean, taken from a ship, on which the blue Caribbean sea of a gigantic, never-ending but at least colorful plastic garbage remains hidden.

Bali shall be plastic free again

On Bali plastic has arrived, too. But the teenaged sisters Melati and Isabel Wijsen aren’t going to accept that. With their ‘Bye Bye Plastic Bags’ initiative, they no longer want to revolutionize just their island, they are aiming for all oceans and, basically the entire world.

They say that it is custom for the people of Bali to burn garbage. Therefor they also gather plastic (garbage) and burn it – without considering the health risks of their actions.

Anyone who has ever been to Bali may remember the offerings to the gods that the Balinese put down day after day in the form of rice and flowers. The rice is served in a small bowl made of banana peels. Melati and Isabel Wijsen say that food on Bali was still served in banana leaves not so long ago. Today, the oh so practical plastic serves as a substitute. Then it is, just as the banana leaves, disposed of, somewhere on the side of the road. With the difference that plastic just never rots.

Education for plastic elimination

They then talk about turtles living in the Indian Ocean off Bali and about how they die miserably, trapped in plastic garbage. Not to mention the health effects on people who eat fish that is infiltrated by tiny plastic particles because the fish are not able digest the plastic and it settles in their bodies.

So it’s a lot of educational work that Melati and Isabel Wijsen have done and want to do. Patiently, they explain again and again what effects the use and careless discarding of plastic have on the environment and on one’s own health.

Big success: Indonesian government supports ‘Bye Bye Plastic Bags’

In the meantime, they are not only receiving support from the Balinese government, which is committed since 2016 for Bali to be plastic bag-free by 2018. There is a pilot project with a small village in Bali where alternatives to plastic bags such as reusable shopping bags have been tested for several years. There was also a test project last year involving 23 cities across Indonesia trying to pay for plastic bags.

Because Melati and Isabel Wijsen, who are just 16 and 14 years old, cannot possibly handle their program alone, there is now a outfit of volunteers who actively support ‘Bye Bye Plastic Bags’, or ‘BBPB’ for short. They are tirelessly speaking at universities and increasingly also in companies about their efforts to turn their beloved Bali and the world back into a plastic-free paradise.

If you would like to experience the inspiring sisters Melati and Isabel Wijsen live on stage, talk to us or write an email to: melati-isabel-wijsen@premium-speakers.com Melati and Isbael Wijsen speak in English.