环保姐妹花：让巴厘岛与塑料袋说拜拜

Jewel+Topsfield+赵青奇

作为白色污染之一的塑料袋难以降解，给生态环境造成了极大的危害。为了限制塑料袋的使用，世界各国都绞尽脑汁，使出各种招数，但真正有所成效的却屈指可数。面对成人甚至是政府都头疼的难题，巴厘岛的一对小姐妹挺身而出，还最终收到了成效。她们究竟是何方高手？又用了什么高招呢？一起走近下文来一探究竟吧！

"Welcome to Bali，" Balinese sisters Melati and Isabel Wijsen chant1）， hands pressed together in the Balinese greeting gesture. "Do you have any plastic bags to declare？" The sisters won't rest until all visitors are asked this question upon arrival at Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport.

Melati and Isabel dream of a day plastic bags will be forbidden in Bali. "We want people to arrive on the Island of Gods and there will be no plastic bags，" Melati says. "Everyone who enters our home would know no plastic bags could be taken in or out."

The Bye Bye Plastic Bags Campaign

Balinese people traditionally only used organic materials leaving no waste behind. But today paradise is lost， the tourists keep complaining and the resort island is swamped2） with rubbish. Small restaurants serve soft drink in plastic bags to save people the trouble of returning empty bottles. Much of the rubbish in Bali is not collected. Some plastic is burnt，acrid3） fumes choking sweaty4） afternoons. Some is simply dumped in rivers. "In Bali we generate 680 cubic meters of plastic a day. That's about a 14-storey building，" Isabel says in their TED talk which they gave last September. "And when it comes to plastic bags less than five percent get recycled."

Three years ago Melati and Isabel， then aged 10 and 12， were inspired by a class on people such as Mahatma Gandhi andPrincess Diana5） at the Green School6） in Bali. "We sat on the couch brainstorming—'What can we do as kids on the island of Bali？" They knew rubbish was a big problem in Bali but it seemed too difficult to deal with. And then they learned that Rwanda had banned plastic bags in 2008. "If one country does that， Bali should get started，" Melati says. "We don't have to wait until we are older to make a difference."

Melati and Isabel formed Bye Bye Plastic Bags with their best friends. They gave talks at schools across Bali and held beach clean-up days. But it was a challenge for them to get the attention of the government. "Being kids， we thought if we get one million signatures， they cannot ignore us， they will have no choice，" Melati says. But， as Isabel points out in the TED talk： "Who would have guessed one million signatures is， like， a thousand times a thousand？" At first it was fun. They would go to shopping malls and events and the signatures increased fast. But on other days they slowed to a trickle7）. "It was tough，" says Melati and Isabel's mother， Elvira. "We calculated it would take one person seven years. They got stuck a little bit. We needed to have an idea out of the box."

Collect Signatures at the Airport

That idea was the Ngurah Rai International Airport. Someone mentioned that the airport handles 16 million arrivals and departures a year. Tourists were the perfect target for the petition8） as it's hard to escape the plastic making oncepicturesque9） rice fields and forests dirty when holidaying in Bali. Remarkably， the commercial manager of the airport allowed the children to collect signatures at the departure gates behind customs10）—an area normally inaccessible for those without boarding passes. "He said， 'I can't believe I'm letting you do this，'" Melati recalls. The access has since been cancelled due to tightened airport security. But they were fun days that helped increase the number of signatures on the petition to 100，000.

Manage to Get Bali's Governor's Support

Every year monsoonal11） rains sweep rubbish onto Bali's beaches. In the past Bali's Governor Mangku Pastika shrugged the annual event off12） as a "natural phenomenon". "This problem is not anyone's fault， but is due to a natural phenomenon that routinely occurs，" he said a couple of years ago.

For one and a half years Melati and Isabel tried to meet him. "We hand delivered letters every day，" Melati says. "We said we want to make him our hero because we know he has the power to do something，" Elvira adds. But in the end it was Mahatma Gandhi who was responsible for the meeting. When the Wijsen family went to India in 2014， they visited the home of Gandhi， because he had been one of the inspirations for Bye Bye Plastic Bags. "He reached his goals with hunger strikes or marches，" Isabel says. "We said， 'Mum， Dad， we are going on a food strike.'"

It took a lot of convincing. "School， teachers， people around the world all thought we were insane，" Melati says. Eventually they reached a compromise. The girls vowed not to eat from dawn to dusk until the Governor agreed to meet them to discuss stopping plastic bags in Bali. The food strike got a huge reaction on social media. On the first day the police came to their home. Melati said the police expected to find the campaign was being run by adults or foreigners. "Other people could have had the intention to put the Governor in a bad light13），" Elvira says. "The girls only wanted to meet， to say hello."

On the second day， Melati and Isabel were summoned to meet the Governor. "He was really supportive towards our cause，" Isabel says. "He said， 'I'm proud Indonesian youth are trying to do something about the environment.'"

Melati says she and Isabel are now on a "high five14） level" with the Governor. Pastika put them in touch with staff from the environment department. "It became regular for me and Bel to miss two days of school to meet the government，" Melati says. "Awareness of the environment in Bali is boiling up15） right now."

Dream Finally Came True

In March 2015， Elvira says they received a letter from the Bali provincial government environmental agency saying Bali would be plastic bag free by 2018. It was a triumphant moment. But the sisters aren't resting on their laurels16）. They are now working on an educational booklet， aimed at elementary school students， filled with information on how to make your own bags， waste management and pollution. "Change doesn't happen if no one is educated，" Melati says.

Through the years， the sisters' remarkable journey has taken them to London， where they were invited to give a TED talk in September， 2015， and to the office of Bali Governor Mangku Pastika， whom they now count as a friend and who appeared in aYouTube video with them. But perhaps most importantly， as Melati says in the TED talk， "along the way， we have learned that kids can do things. We can make things happen".

“欢迎来到巴厘岛！”梅拉蒂·维森和伊莎贝尔·维森这对巴厘岛姐妹一遍遍地重复着这句话，同时双手合十做出巴厘岛的问候手势。“您有没有塑料袋需要申报？”游客一抵达巴厘岛的乌拉·赖国际机场，姐妹俩就会询问他们这个问题，直到问完所有人，她们才会休息。

梅拉蒂和伊莎贝尔梦想着有朝一日，塑料袋在巴厘岛将被禁止使用。“我们希望大家来到这座神明之岛时，这里将会一个塑料袋都没有，”梅拉蒂说，“进入我们家园的每一个人就都会明白，这里是不可以把塑料袋带入或带出的。”

“塑料袋拜拜”行动

巴厘岛人历来只使用不会留下任何垃圾的有机材料，但如今，这一乐土已不复存在，游客抱怨不停，巴厘岛胜地垃圾泛滥。为省去顾客返还空瓶的麻烦，许多小餐馆都用塑料袋来供应软饮。巴厘岛的垃圾大多不会回收：有些塑料制品会被焚烧，刺鼻的烟雾让人在闷热得汗流浃背的下午透不过气来；有些就那么被倾倒进了河里。“在巴厘岛，我们每天会产生680立方米的塑料制品，它们堆起来大概有14层楼那么高，”伊莎贝尔说，“而说到塑料袋，其回收率都不到百分之五。”这话出自她和妹妹在去年9月（编注：英文原文发表于2016年3月）发表的TED演讲。

三年前，当时10岁的梅拉蒂和12岁的伊莎贝尔在巴厘岛的绿色学校上了一节有关圣雄甘地和戴安娜王妃等这些人物的课，受到了鼓舞。“我们坐在长沙发上进行头脑风暴——‘我们这些巴厘岛上的小孩可以做些什么呢？”她们知道垃圾是巴厘岛的一大难题，但这个问题解决起来似乎太难了。不过接着她们就得知卢旺达在2008年禁用了塑料袋。“如果有一个国家这样做，巴厘岛也应该行动起来，”梅拉蒂说，“我们不必等自己长大了再去有所作为。”

梅拉蒂和伊莎贝尔跟她们的好朋友们一道发起了“塑料袋拜拜”行动。她们在巴厘岛全岛的学校发表演讲，还设立了海滩清理日。然而，获得政府的关注对她们而言是一个挑战。“作为小孩，我们认为如果我们能获得100万个签名，他们就无法忽视我们，他们将别无选择。”梅拉蒂说。但是，正如伊莎贝尔在TED演讲中所指出的那样：“ 那时谁会想到100万个签名大概就是1000乘以1000？”一开始这件事挺有趣的，她们会去往各个购物中心，参加各种活动，签名迅速地增加。但在其他时候，签名不过是三三两两地增加。“任务艰巨，”梅拉蒂和伊莎贝尔的母亲埃尔薇拉说，“我们算了一下，一个人要花七年的时间才能集齐签名。她们有点被难住了。我们需要想一个有创意的主意。”

在机场收集签名

这个主意就是乌拉·赖国际机场。有人提到该机场每年的旅客吞吐量为1600万人次。游客是签名请愿的理想目标，因为只要在巴厘岛度假就难以避免使用塑料制品，而它们会污染曾经美丽如画的稻田和森林。不可思议的是，机场的商务经理允许孩子们在海关后的登机口（这是未持登机牌者通常不得进入的区域）收集签名。“他（译注：商务经理）说：‘真不敢相信我会让你们这么做。”梅拉蒂回忆说。由于机场安全措施加强，她们现在已经不能进入该区域了。不过，那在当时是很有趣的一段日子，使请愿书上的签名数量增加到了十万。

设法获得巴厘岛省长的支持

每年，季风雨都会把垃圾冲到巴厘岛的海滩上。巴厘岛省长芒古·帕斯迪卡此前对这一年度事件不屑一顾，认为它是一种“自然现象”。“这个问题不是任何人的错，而是由一种惯常出现的自然现象所引发的。”他在几年前这样说。

梅拉蒂和伊莎贝尔用了一年半的时间尝试要见他。“我们每天亲自把信送到他那里。”梅拉蒂说。“我们在信中说我们想让他成为我们的英雄，因为我们知道他有能力做到这一点。”埃尔薇拉补充说。但最终促成她们与省长会面却是圣雄甘地的功劳。2014年，维森一家去印度时参观了甘地的故居，因为他是激励姐妹俩发起“塑料袋拜拜”运动的因素之一。“他通过绝食抗议或游行实现了自己的目标，”伊莎贝尔说，“我们就说：‘爸爸妈妈，我们也将绝食抗议。”

说服大家颇费周章。“学校、老师、全世界的人都以为我们疯了。”梅拉蒂说。最终她们做出了让步。姐妹俩立誓将在每天的黎明到黄昏这段时间进行绝食，直到省长同意接见她们，一起讨论在巴厘岛禁用塑料袋一事。她们的绝食抗议在社交媒体上引起了巨大反响。绝食第一天，警察就去了她们家。梅拉蒂说，警方原本认为这次行动是由大人或者外国人操控的。“别人可能怀有将省长置于不利境地的企图，”埃尔薇拉说，“但这对姐妹只是想跟他见上一面，向他问好。”

第二天，梅拉蒂和伊莎贝尔就受到了省长的召见。“他真的非常支持我们的运动，”伊莎贝尔说，“他说：‘看到印尼青年正试图在环境保护方面有所作为，我感到非常骄傲。”

梅拉蒂说，她和伊莎贝尔现在跟省长是“击掌之交”。帕斯迪卡安排她们联系上了环保部门的工作人员。“翘两天的课去见政府人员对我和贝尔来说变成了常事，”梅拉蒂说，“如今在巴厘岛，环境意识正日益增强。”

梦想终于成真

埃尔薇拉说，她们在2015年3月收到了一封来自巴厘岛省政府环保部门的信，信上说巴厘岛将在2018年之前实现“零塑料袋”。那是一个值得庆祝的时刻，但姐妹俩并没有满足于她们已经取得的成就。她们目前正在制作一本针对小学生的教育手册，其中都是关于如何自制袋子、垃圾处理以及环境污染方面的信息。“如果没有人受到相关教育，改变就不会发生。”梅拉蒂说。

这些年，姐妹俩不同寻常的环保历程将她们带到了伦敦（2015年9月，她们应邀去那里进行了TED演讲），带到了巴厘岛省长芒古·帕斯迪卡的办公室（如今他被她们视为朋友， 还和她们一起出现在了一段YouTube视频中）。但或许最为重要的是，正如梅拉蒂在TED演讲中所说的：“一路走来，我们已经意识到小孩也能干出事业，我们也能有所作为。”