The Change For Sustainability

The story begins with Anthony, an 18-year-old university freshman from Tasmania, and Nicholas, a 17-year-old university freshman also from Tasmania, during a presentation on sustainability during the university’s orientation week acquainted at the event. And after a while, they moved into a unit and became roommates. Anthony found that Nicholas used plastic packaging very frequently, and he wanted to help Nicholas change his living habits with the intention of sustainable development in his life. During the change, they quarrelled, and at Anthony’s strong request, they went to a beach together to collect the ubiquitous plastic packaging. Encountered a thunderstorm on the way to collect, and a magical scene began…

During a sustainability campaign during orientation week at their university, Anthony and Nicholas were assigned to a group by campaign staff to work together to design a sustainable mug. During the production process, they learned from the exchange that the two sides were people from the same place, and they chatted more and more vigorously. Found a familiar feeling in an unfamiliar new city. They also became each other’s first friends in this school. Anthony is a boy who loves nature, and he has also participated in many volunteer activities related to protecting the environment. Participated in a marine conservation group collecting plastic bottles on the beach just before entering school. In life, we pay great attention to environmental protection and strictly control the use of plastics. However, Nicholas’ awareness of sustainability is diametrically opposed to Anthony’s. In his consciousness, he lacks awareness of sustainable development, only understands some brief information, does not understand the importance of sustainable development, and does not pay much attention to environmental protection in life. Nicholas went to the design cup campaign just to get a free cup. But as they chatted very speculatively in other areas, and they were also the first person they met in a strange city, and for cheaper rent, they moved to a unit, became roommates, and began to live together. . Gradually, Anthony found that Nicholas was unrestrained in the use of plastics, which made him very incomprehensible, and wanted to help Nicholas change the habit of using plastics frequently. So Anthony developed an “environmental protection plan” for Nicholas. He very much hopes that Nicholas can realize the pollution caused by the use of plastics in the environment.  At the same time, he also hopes that more people will be aware of this problem. Anthony’s plan is divided into three parts – recognition, implementation, and dissemination. Facing this plan, Anthony faced a lot of uncertainty, because it is very difficult to change the living habits that a person has been insisting on for more than ten years, and it is facing an uncontrollable individual. So, it’s a very challenging plan. However, he was still full of energy to perfect the plan. He very much wants to improve the awareness of sustainable development among the people around him through his own efforts. By changing small habits in life, we can improve the environment and achieve sustainable development. Before this, Nicholas was unaware of the “environmental protection plan”, so can he accept the plan formulated by Anthony? Can he hold on? Will they encounter difficulties in the implementation of the plan? Will their relationship change?

Anthony chose a weekend to tell Nicholas the plan. The first step before the project began was to tell Nicholas what effect plastic was having on the pollution level of the planet right now. Anthony said: “Plastic bags, bottles, straws, single-use packaging and microbeads are polluting our seas. The whole process of plastic packaging from production to disposal will consume a lot of resources. During the process, it was scattered in the streets of the city, living quarters, tourist attractions, roads, railways and other public places. Such non-decomposable plastic products have accumulated in various places, and the difficulty of recycling is relatively high. It causes great harm to the environment. It takes more than two hundred years for each plastic package to decompose naturally. Secondly, it poses a threat to the survival of animals. Waste plastic products discarded on land or in water are swallowed by animals as food. , causing animal deaths. Ten per cent of the plastic produced globally every year ends up in the oceans and animals in the oceans are harmed.” But Nicholas still disagreed and said: “I just use disposable lunch boxes to pack my daily meals every day, so that I don’t have to wash dishes. I really hate washing dishes, isn’t it more convenient to use disposable lunch boxes? Also, when I take out food at restaurants, they are also packaged in single-use plastic, which is out of my control.” Anthony explained: “Yes, it’s convenient to use plastic cutlery once, but think about how hard it is to use plastic. Materials that decompose naturally. If everyone in the world used single-use plastic packaging, the streets would be full of plastic packaging, and the earth would no longer be the earth, but a world that would become plastic. The oceans would also be full of floating Plastic packaging. This will also greatly affect our own normal life. Human beings are insignificant in front of nature, and we are connected with nature. While we are protecting the natural environment, nature is also protecting human beings. Therefore, although we are only an individual, we can gather this group of strengths through our own small strengths to form a huge sustainable development organization, so that more and more people can adopt a sustainable development lifestyle. Don’t you think it’s a great sense of achievement to make our environment better? The phenomenon of using single-use plastic packaging for take-out services in restaurants is slowly changing with the policies issued by the country, and most cafes have also begun to If you bring your own cup, you can have discounts. But the real sustainable development starts with changing your own habits.” After Anthony’s words, Nicholas was moved by his sincerity and finally decided to start changing his lifestyle. So they signed an environmental protection plan. Agreement. In the agreement, Nicholas promised to work hard to change their habits of life for many years.

The change plan officially began, and Anthony hid all the plastic cutlery in the kitchen. Nicholas, who is accustomed to using plastic cutlery, is not used to it. But I still use sustainable cutlery, and I also went to the supermarket to buy water bottles that can be taken out. Fortunately, Nicholas is full of fighting spirit and a firm attitude towards the implementation of this plan. But when he persisted for a while, and as his studies became busier and busier, he began to become lazy. The sink is full of unwashed dishes. At the beginning of the phenomenon, Anthony would help him clean the dishes in the sink. Nicholas will also be reminded to clean up the utensils he has used. As the number of times increased, Anthony stopped helping clean up the mess he created, but he would still remind him not to use disposable cutlery. But in the end, Nicholas did not overcome laziness and began to think of buying disposable tableware. A few days later, a three-day public holiday came, and Anthony made a trip back to Adelaide to visit his parents. Unsurprisingly, during Anthony’s return home, Nicholas began to re-purchase disposable tableware, solving the problem of washing dishes, and he seemed to feel “reborn”. Three days later, Anthony returns to their unit from Adelaide and finds the trash can full of Nicholas’s plastic cutlery. He is furious and disappointed. When Nicholas returns to the unit, Anthony asks Nicholas, “Why are you using disposable plastic utensils again? Have you forgotten the planner we posted on the refrigerator door? I thought we agreed to stick to it. How come I’ve only been gone three days and you’re back to your old self?” As soon as the words were over, Nicholas, who had just finished a project in school, could not hide the emotion brought by exhaustion and also broke out. “I don’t want to do this environmental protection project at all. Why should I change the living habits that I have kept for more than ten years?” After a quarrel, they both calmed down, and Antony said to Nicholas, “Why don’t you try again? There is a volunteer event collecting plastic packaging on the beach this weekend. Would you like to join me?” He thought about it. He had been so excited that he decided to go to the event with Anthony. Soon, it was time for the activity. After a long drive, they came to a beach far from the city. They saw plastic packaging everywhere on the sand, and Nicholas was lost in thought. Although the weather was overcast that day, the activity went on normally. At first, they were just concentrating on collecting plastic waste, but as it got darker and darker, the sky began to rain, but they didn’t care and wanted to continue collecting in the rain. All of a sudden, there was wind and rain, lightning and thunder, and they ran back to the shore, but before they could, a bolt of lightning struck them, and a strange force rushed into their bodies. They noticed how their vision had dropped and they were flat on their faces. They saw each other and said, “How did you become a turtle?” They can’t believe they’ve become turtles, in the 21st century. Unexpectedly, they were struck by lightning and turned into turtles. This magical power made them feel very unbelievable. But there is no way, that reality lets them only try their best to change the human, but the heavy body makes them difficult to move, can’t adapt to this body. They could only get back to the sea before the tide went out.

Fortunately, they made it back to sea before the tide went out. Began life at sea, and after one night Nicholas got a plastic bottle wrapped around his head, but he couldn’t get it off himself. Anthony tried many times but could do nothing because their limbs couldn’t get the plastic bottle off. This plastic bottle is also stuck really tight. As time went on, Nicholas became more and more uncomfortable, choking also more and more obvious. It was the first time he felt the despair of his life. It was at this moment that he really realized how serious the harm of plastic packaging was to the environment and Marine animals. At this time, the marine animal rescue team appeared, and he desperately swam to the shore for the rescue team to find him. As expected, after the rescue team found him, they immediately rescued Nicholas and took down the plastic bottle that was placed on his head. The moment he took it down was the second rebirth that Nicholas felt during this period of time. But it was a completely different feeling from the last time. This time, he was not only rescued from suffocation but also realized the serious harm caused by plastic packaging. After the rescue team sent Nicholas back to the sea, he and Anthony still couldn’t turn back into human beings and could only continue to drift in the ocean. They also encountered turtles in a similar situation to Nicholas. There are plastic bags entangled in their limbs, sea turtles that swallow plastic, and sea turtles that have plastic straws inserted into their nostrils. This makes them feel very distressed.

A few days later, there was another thunderstorm, and that magical force appeared, turning Anthony and Nicholas back into humans. After they found out, they swam hard to the shore and returned to the unit. Nicholas are also determined to get rid of his previous bad habits and not use any plastic packaging, which makes Anthony very pleased. Half a year later, Nicholas insists on not using plastic bags and cutlery. He himself did not expect to change the living habits of the past ten years. He and Anthony also started planning to inspire more people around them and find more like-minded people to set up a sustainable non-profit organization. Where to go, people like before Nicholas can pay more attention to sustainability and develop environmentally friendly living habits little by little.