Success Stories. Name: Caitlin Philipps Age: 18 years old Location: Victoria, Australia

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1 Su Success Stories Share one of these success stories from the World Oceans Day Youth Advisory Council with your group or use them as inspiration to develop your own story! Photos of the Youth Advisory Council can be found on the Plastic Pollution Resources page of the World Oceans Day website. Name: Caitlin Philipps Age: 18 years old Location: Victoria, Australia Caitlin is a young Australian whose passion for ocean conservation began when she was little - watching marine life from the family yacht and picking up rubbish found on the beach. Her commitment towards the eradication of plastic pollution has only grown, leading to Caitlin organizing a World Oceans Day event last year, 2017 at her high school. Over two days, she screened the short film The Smog of the Sea by Ian Cheney. At the end of the film, she asked her peers what they could do to reduce the amount of plastic they use in their daily lives and asked them to pledge to stop using one form of singleuse plastic such as plastic bags, straws or takeaway coffee cups. The event was a big success! The high school s lecture theatre filled out both days and Caitlin received responses afterwards in the schoolyard with students saying, I went to a cafe for lunch yesterday and didn t use a straw, and, I put my sandwich in a container today and not glad wrap like I usually do.

2 Name: Olivia Taylor Age: 21 years old Location: Stellenbosch, South Africa One Man, One Ton: Olivia was involved in the One Man, One Ton initiative. This beach clean-up, which took place along a 9km stretch, covering a river mouth and several mangrove swamps. It highlighted how much rubbish one person, in this case Jason Gessner, can collect in one day. There were many volunteers who sorted through the collected trash for things that could be recycled and took the rest to the local municipal dump. Over 1500 kg were eventually collected during a 12-hour period. This event took place in 2012 and not only educated people about how much rubbish lines our seemingly pristine beaches in Durban, but spearheaded a series of beach cleanups that continue today. Four Elements Ocean Challenge: Olivia runs an event called the Four Elements Ocean Challenge. This long distance, open water swim in Durban has, since its inception, had a focus on raising awareness about plastic pollution and the effects it has on the local ecosystem. In 2017 the Ocean Challenge encouraged the public to take a look under the waves to truly see the effects of the pollution. Unlike deforestation, it is often difficult to comprehend the extent to which plastic is damaging the ocean. Deforestation is above water and can easily be measured giving people a good mental image of the destruction. This event saw many of the competitors stopping to collect plastic out of the ocean and keeping it on them until they had completed the swim. A short film was produced to document the occasion: Stainless steel straws: Olivia decided to start a personal initiative to help make the lives of her friends easier with regards to being an aware citizen. She bought a few stainless steel straws from 4Eva Straws and distributed them among her friends. Olivia was inspired to see the incredible mental shift that has occurred in many of them and the sense of pride they get when using their new sustainable straws at restaurants. Saying no to plastic straws feels almost like a silent rebellion.

3 Name: Ibrahi Rodriguez Age: 18 years old Location: Galapagos Island, Ecuador Ibrahi realized plastic pollution was a big issue in his community when he learned about the impact that plastic has on marine ecosystems. That's why he started to work with Ecology Project International (EPI) in the Green Sea Turtle Protection program to decrease the threat levels that plastic represents for this emblematic species. He started simply as a volunteer in the program has been hooked ever since. Nowadays he is one of the main leaders of this project which is conducted in a local beach that locals and foreigners. The program's main objective is to teach local youth how to protect this already endangered species and to raise awareness about the plastic issue, so they can have an active role in conservation actions. One of the main purposes is to do beach cleanups every week and weigh what they collect in order to have an idea of how much plastic is arriving to this area every day. Ibrahi and other EPI members also decided to limit the amount of single-use plastics in restaurants, especially straws, by teaching a workshop on the impacts of consumerist actions on marine wildlife. Their results were successful! They reduced almost 90% of straws in one restaurant and want to get other restaurants engaged. This means that we don't have to become adults or scientists to do something in order to protect the ocean and marine wildlife because we are borrowing it from our future children and we don t want to leave it in bad condition for them.

4 Name: Kehkashan Basu Age: 17 years old Location: Toronto, Canada When Kehkashan was eight years old she saw a photo of a dead bird with its stomach full of plastic. This image shook her to the core. She decided to do something about it and started a campaign in her neighborhood asking residents and shop owners to shun plastic and stop littering. Her war of plastics gathered further momentum when she established her own youth organization, Green Hope Foundation. She did this after returning from Rio+20 as a way to provide young people a platform to engage in the sustainable development process through community centric ground level campaigns. They clean beaches across many countries and it always amazes them that, no matter which country they go to, the story is the same everywhere. Tourists and residents alike treat the beach as a dumping ground leaving tonnes of plastic of all colors and shapes. During every cleanup, they talk to the beachgoers explaining the damage their litter causes. They carry posters showing its impact on marine life and birds. Some of the beaches they visited after their first cleanup have shown a reduction in plastic litter and Kehkashan sees that as an encouraging sign. The impact of plastic pollution is quite severe on coastal ecosystems, especially on mangroves. For the last 5 years, she has led the Green Hope team to these mangroves, kayaking across the open sea to reach them as they are usually located off the coastlines. Plastic litter left on beaches is washed out by the tide into these mangroves where it gets stuck on their roots, choking and killing them. They have found numerous carcasses of birds, turtles, and fish choked on plastic. Through their efforts, they have managed to save large areas of mangroves off the UAE coastline. Encouraged by the progress, Kehkashan led a team to the Sunderbans, the world s largest mangrove forest situated between India and Bangladesh. They spent a week educating by holding workshops at the village schools. Together, they conducted a village cleanup and pledged to shun plastic in their homes. Kehkashan and her team also planted several hundred mangrove saplings in areas where these had been depleted, for which she was awarded the 2017 National Energy Globe Award. She believes the war against plastic will require consistent effort by all stakeholders through a bottom-up approach, as legislation cannot solve this problem alone. She is encouraged by the response her campaign has had so far and believes that if we all work together, then the day is not far away when we can really bid adieu to plastic.

5 Name: Sofia El-Rass Age: 18 years old Location: Kongens Lyngby, Denmark Sofia s interest in a plastic-free lifestyle sparked over a year ago when she stumbled upon an organization called 4Ocean which sells bracelets made out of recycled ocean waste. After looking into the motivation for the company and researching the extent of plastic pollution through documentaries such as A Plastic Ocean, Sofia started aiming for a plastic-free lifestyle. In doing so, she uses plastic alternatives such as glass straws, bamboo cutlery, and biodegradable healthcare products which are free from microplastics. Although her individual commitment is strong, she is aiming to encourage others through two primary goals: educating people on the problem and to promoting innovative solutions. With these two tasks in mind, Sofia incorporated her concerns into a school club she was running at her high school called the Global Issues Network (GIN) club. Through this club, the members of GIN came up with several ideas to help combat the problem by supporting nongovernmental organizations which work with rectifying plastic pollution. One of these ideas was the reusable Save the Turtles cloth bag. These donated totes had a turtle shell design painted on them by the club and were then re-sold so the proceeds could be sent to a turtle rehabilitation center in Kenya. The particular center donated to care for turtles who were injured by human activities, especially plastic pollution. This project led Sofia to establish another group called the CIS Ocean Cleanup group at the Copenhagen International School. The CIS Ocean Cleanup was made to spread awareness and solutions to plastic pollution. In collaboration with the GIN club, this group sold aluminum water bottles at the CIS school with a blurb attached. This blurb provided some insight on how plastic bottles damage the environment as well as information on an NGO called Trash Hero, to which the profits were donated. With roughly $40 (USD) gathered in their first trial of selling bottles, the CIS Ocean Cleanup group is continuing to sell more bottles and expanding their catchment through promoting innovative solutions and articles on plastic pollution on their Facebook page. In addition to that, Sofia incorporates cleanups in her everyday life. She does this by walking down lakes or shorelines and filling up bags with litter people have left behind in her hometown as well as from vacationers. This year she cleaned beaches in the Maldives and Sri Lanka by encouraging locals and tourists to help her dispose of the trash correctly. Not only did this make the beaches look healthier, but it allowed her to collaborate with a local who cleaned beaches every morning at 4 am.

6 Name: Eugénia Barroca Age: 23 years old Location: Vila Nova de Gaia, Porto, Portugal Eugénia, also known as Gé, is a young Portuguese ocean lover. She has always felt a passion for helping the ocean life. Gé has spent the last two years learning and growing together with all the World Oceans Day Youth Advisory Council members. She was inspired by the wave that embraced her in New York City last June 2017 when she marched for our oceans together with other Youth Advisory Council members and other ocean activists including Sea Youth Rise Up and Heirs to Our Oceans. Eugénia came back to Portugal recharged to lead two Portugal s World Oceans Day events. On the official World Oceans Day date, June 8 th, she went to her old high school and gave two lectures to students spreading awareness about major ocean problems and focused on plastic pollution impacts and solutions. She shared some results of her final bachelor s project on marine debris in Portuguese beaches with the classes. On June 10 th, she led a full day celebration with a beach clean-up, followed by an artistic workshop and a symbolic play. All those activities focused on the World Oceans Day 2017 theme of plastic pollution. In both events, Eugénia challenged everyone to sign a declaration of commitments to reduce or stop using single-use plastic items She helped to develop this campaign measure with the Youth Advisory Council. Afterwards, the sculptures that citizens created from what was simply just plastic pollution on Portuguese beaches was transformed into a simple art exposition in the local municipal library of Vagos. All of these events were possible with the help and support of local government, stakeholders, and largely the support of Eugénia s family and friends. Eugénia believes she is just one more drop of water in this magic wave of change that we are all in! She encourages all of us to go with this flow and create our own World Oceans Day events in our school and community.