Reflecting on our relationship with the Earth

We’re on a collective journey in our relationship with the Earth and it's time we reflected on it…Typically, we use this space to write a letter to you. In honour of Earth Month, we've written a letter to planet Earth instead.

I don’t know if it’s the rain that helps forests grow, or is it the forests that call upon rain? I do not know if the seasons bring about the annual migration - from dragonflies to whales - across your hemispheres, or is it the migration that shepherds the change of seasons?

But I do understand the interrelatedness of it all, and through it, of my relationship with you.

If I look at the abundance you have provided humanity, the service you have offered to all life, and the fruits you continue to bear for generations to come, I see that you have only been giving and seeking nothing in return.

It is a right you didn't claim, and a responsibility I didn't realize.

It is time I confessed what I have unearthed, to you: you can live without me, but I cannot live without you.

I pledge to invest in my relationship with you. To care for you as you have cared for me and my loved ones. I may not be perfect. I might falter and misunderstand what I should do for you. But I will not stop trying. I will not give up on you, or take you for granted.

I pledge to become the much-awaited change that I seek. To change the way I approach, consume, and recycle your material resources. To reveal the value in all things, as the truth is that waste is an illusion of the human mind.

I pledge to gather us all together to see the beauty you are and create a future where no material is waste and no human is wasteful.

I pledge to raise a generation that fosters this relationship. A generation that finds pride and glory in living harmoniously with you and all living beings.

I pledge to return home, to you.

Our relationship with the Earth necessitates that we change the way we approach, consume, and dispose of its material resources.

Join the humans of social recycling from around the world and pledge to invest in your relationship with the Earth at plasticbank.com/pledge.

We’ll celebrate your commitment by:

Collecting a kilogram per signature, up to 10,000 kilograms.

Share the letter with the UNEP for consideration and support of recycling in coastal communities with high rates of ocean-bound plastic pollution and poverty.

*Data reported from April 03, 2023

Philippines

Last month, our team in the Philippines successfully integrated GCash, a local mobile wallet platform, to the PlasticBank ® app. This makes it easier for our collection members to check their incentives from the collected plastic they exchange at our collection branches and cash them out using their own GCash accounts. A training session was also conducted to onboard our collection community members on how to use the GCash feature in the PlasticBank ® app.

Indonesia

Our team in Indonesia collaborated with Plastic Reborn to train teachers in the province of Lombok about the Ocean Stewards Educational Program curriculum. The teachers took a test to assess their knowledge about plastic pollution, which resulted low but significantly improved after completing the three-day learning sessions.

Together, we also introduced the program to 443 students and partnered with two new schools in the province to raise awareness about plastic pollution and provide access to plastic collection facilities to these communities.

In the second year of our partnership with Plastic Reborn, we aim to collect 100,000 kilograms of single-use PET bottles, empower 10 collection branches and 2 school partners, and educate 200 collection communities and 40 teachers about the importance of recycling.

Brazil

In March, our collection communities in Brazil reached another milestone – stopping 4 million kilograms of plastic waste from entering the ocean or the equivalent of 200 million single-use 500ml PET bottles.

To celebrate Women’s Day, our team in the country gathered our collection community members in Espirito Santo and Bertioga, São Paulo, to distribute 100 vegetable kits and 154 hygiene kits.

Egypt

In Egypt, we held our first health and safety awareness session for 60 community members at our office in Mansheya, in collaboration with ABC Certification Organization – an Accredited Conformity Assessment Body. Delivered by a certified instructor, the session aimed to increase the understanding of our members and their family regarding hazards and risks associated with plastic collection and how to avoid them.