NCKU students dress up as plastic monsters to raise eco awareness
Tainan, Taiwan, March 3, 2014
Though plastic bags are easy to use, they cause serious pollution to the environment; in order to advocate the concept of plastic bag reduction, the students of the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) Green Toes Society (成大綠腳趾社) took turns in disguising themselves as two BagMonsters recently, and were out and about their usual haunts across the NCKU campuses, attracting much attention of passers-by.
The BagMonsters also took advantage of dinner time to stroll along Yule Street (育樂街), close to campus, to promote the “less plastic, more multi-use bags” concept to vendors, earning much praise, along with promises that they too would work together towards the “less plastic” or even “no plastic” goal.
These two BagMonsters are the combined work of NCKU Green Toes Society members Bo-Kai Hsu, Xin-Yun Wu, Xin-Yi Liu, Shan-Wen Wu, Ding-Xiang Chiu, Jian-Zhong Chen and Ping-Huei Lai (許博凱、吳欣芸、劉欣宜、吳善文、邱鼎翔、陳建中、賴品蕙).
Together, they collected nearly 300 plastic bags of various sizes and colors, and sewed them onto 2 sets of hat, shirt, and trousers. When worn, one immediately transforms into an eye-catching, giant plastic bag monster!
Taking advantage of the weekend – which coincides with the NCKU Graduate Institute exams, and has more people whom are out to play – the two plastic BagMonsters roamed amongst the public.
Starting from the Kuang-Fu campus, they journeyed through the Banyan Tree Garden, the Cheng-Kung Pond, to the Cheng-Kung campus.
They attracted the attention of many people, many of which asked for photos. Also, a 1yr child really believed that the monsters came, and started crying out of fright, while some 5yr kids approached the monsters out of curiosity.
In the evening, the BagMonsters proceeded to Yule Street. The vendors listened to the students’ recommendations, and all expressed support, as well as admiration for their motivated and eco-friendly spirit.
Both male and female student dressed up as BagMonsters and, although plastic is very light, it was still their first time wearing so many plastic bags at a time, so there were many restrictions to their mobility. Plus, if there was a gust of wind, the plastic bags would fly up and cover the monsters’ face!
However, the students did not complain, and continued to stroll along the road while making fun and enthusiastically shouting “plastic bag reduction”, making passers-by smile and giving the thumbs up!
The vice president of the NCKU Green Toe Society, Xin-Yi Liu, says that this event is a continuation of last year’s beach cleaning activity, when they watched the documentary “Plastic Shores (海洋塑化記)” on their way back from the beach.
In the movie, Andy Keller took advantage of 500 plastic bags to make a “plastic monster” for the average American plastic bag usage per year is roughly 500.
Therefore, NCKU Green Toe Society modeled their campaign in the same way, hoping to raise environmental awareness among students, to persuade shoppers to refrain from providing plastic bags.
Enditem/
Though plastic bags are easy to use, they cause serious pollution to the environment; in order to advocate the concept of plastic bag reduction, the students of the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) Green Toes Society (成大綠腳趾社) took turns in disguising themselves as two BagMonsters recently, and were out and about their usual haunts across the NCKU campuses, attracting much attention of passers-by.
The BagMonsters also took advantage of dinner time to stroll along Yule Street (育樂街), close to campus, to promote the “less plastic, more multi-use bags” concept to vendors, earning much praise, along with promises that they too would work together towards the “less plastic” or even “no plastic” goal.
These two BagMonsters are the combined work of NCKU Green Toes Society members Bo-Kai Hsu, Xin-Yun Wu, Xin-Yi Liu, Shan-Wen Wu, Ding-Xiang Chiu, Jian-Zhong Chen and Ping-Huei Lai (許博凱、吳欣芸、劉欣宜、吳善文、邱鼎翔、陳建中、賴品蕙).
Together, they collected nearly 300 plastic bags of various sizes and colors, and sewed them onto 2 sets of hat, shirt, and trousers. When worn, one immediately transforms into an eye-catching, giant plastic bag monster!
Taking advantage of the weekend – which coincides with the NCKU Graduate Institute exams, and has more people whom are out to play – the two plastic BagMonsters roamed amongst the public.
Starting from the Kuang-Fu campus, they journeyed through the Banyan Tree Garden, the Cheng-Kung Pond, to the Cheng-Kung campus.
They attracted the attention of many people, many of which asked for photos. Also, a 1yr child really believed that the monsters came, and started crying out of fright, while some 5yr kids approached the monsters out of curiosity.
In the evening, the BagMonsters proceeded to Yule Street. The vendors listened to the students’ recommendations, and all expressed support, as well as admiration for their motivated and eco-friendly spirit.
Both male and female student dressed up as BagMonsters and, although plastic is very light, it was still their first time wearing so many plastic bags at a time, so there were many restrictions to their mobility. Plus, if there was a gust of wind, the plastic bags would fly up and cover the monsters’ face!
However, the students did not complain, and continued to stroll along the road while making fun and enthusiastically shouting “plastic bag reduction”, making passers-by smile and giving the thumbs up!
The vice president of the NCKU Green Toe Society, Xin-Yi Liu, says that this event is a continuation of last year’s beach cleaning activity, when they watched the documentary “Plastic Shores (海洋塑化記)” on their way back from the beach.
In the movie, Andy Keller took advantage of 500 plastic bags to make a “plastic monster” for the average American plastic bag usage per year is roughly 500.
Therefore, NCKU Green Toe Society modeled their campaign in the same way, hoping to raise environmental awareness among students, to persuade shoppers to refrain from providing plastic bags.
Enditem/
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