Kolkata 20 April 2018 - Earth Day Network (India) was back with Earth Reel 2018 which focused on the theme ‘End Plastic Pollution’. Earth Day Network, in partnership with NGO Bichitra Pathshala and educational institution iLEAD – flagged off the competition to commemorate Earth Day 2018 at the Dale Carnegie Auditorium at iLEAD. The mockumentary “The Majestic Plastic Bag” set the tone for the day. An audience of 100 plus, constituting teachers and students from Kolkata schools watched with great amusement the fate of a plastic bag from the departmental store to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The opening presentation by Mr. Pradip Chopra, Chairman iLEAD came as an counterpoint. He asked the audience, “If we say ‘no’ to plastic, to what do we say ‘yes’‟?” Which other material leaves a lower carbon footprint than plastic? Which other material causes less degradation to the environment than plastic does? Mrs. Karuna Singh, Country Director, Earth Day Network, spoke to the young audience about the major concerns of Earth Day Network. In her presentation, Mrs. Singh rolled out statistics on plastic consumption and plastic waste. She showed startling visuals of plastic litter on land, in sea and inside the intestines of animals. Mrs. Singh ended with a call to do something drastic. She suggested ways of upcycling plastic and urged everybody to begin separation at source.

Ms. Rupa Pandit, co-ordinator of Greenagers, an environment activists group at Assembly of God Church School, spoke about the years of effort put in by her group to initiate separation at source in her school. When she was told that separation at source will take away the livelihood of rag pickers, she made arrangements to train rag pickers to upcycle thrown away plastics into attractive artifacts. Today they sit in a non-hazardous and comfortable environment and make plastic baskets, files and boxes. Greenagers have also been active at different levels of society to spread awareness about plastic recycling. Mr. Curtis Arathoon, a trustee of Green for Life Foundation, began his presentation by showing a plastic bag less than 40 microns in thickness. He said that it was an illegal product and yet, it is openly in circulation. Challenged with the carpet of polybags littering the city, Green for Life improved EarthSmiles.net’s way of recycling the plastic efficiently and successfully through a process now named by him as the “fusion technology”. Today he is making files and folders using this recycled plastic. Mr. Arathoon warned the audience that we are sitting on a time bomb, ready to engulf us with its sheer volume.

Mallika Jalan introduces the film Kolkata 2070 Archan Mitra speaks about effect of plastics on animals

After the thought-provoking presentations, “Kolkata 2070”, produced by the German Consulate General, was screened. Deputy Consul General, Mr. Jürgen Thomas Schrod introduced the film and urged everybody to take small steps to minimise plastic waste in this city. Ms. Mallika Jalan, executive producer of the film, was also felicitated. She reiterated that everything that was shown in the film was based on research and established facts. In the afternoon, the students and teachers of Bengali medium schools, who have given their names for the film making workshop, stayed back for an orientation of the forthcoming workshop. They were shown some films from earlier Earth Reels and told about the different categories of participation in this film making competition. This year a special category of participation is being created for the workshop participants. But many of the participants expressed a desire to participate in the regular category, too. Thus the day of Earth Reel orientation concluded on a note of satisfaction, with a promise of more activities in the near future.