This year, World Environment Day was extra special for us. We chose this significant day to launch our #BinForGreenSeas, and the 5th June marked the unveiling of our first bin on Blackpool seafront! The launch was an incredible event and marked the beginning of a new era – one where the millions of people visiting Blackpool each year won’t be able to get away from the fact that our oceans need their help! Our bin now stands proudly in Blackpool, reminding people to act responsibly, dispose of litter and work together to save our seas.
This year, World Environment Day was extra special for us. We chose this significant day to launch our #BinForGreenSeas, and the 5th June marked the unveiling of our first bin on Blackpool seafront! The launch was an incredible event and marked the beginning of a new era – one where the millions of people visiting Blackpool each year won’t be able to get away from the fact that our oceans need their help! Our bin now stands proudly in Blackpool, reminding people to act responsibly, dispose of litter and work together to save our seas.
World Environment Day was the perfect time to launch our sea-saving bin, as people across the globe came together to pledge their support for environmental causes. These were some of the 2019 highlights:
Kenya
This World Environment Day, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta announced a complete ban on single-use plastics within protected areas! This huge development will offer protection for national parks, forests and beaches. It will come into effect in June 2020.
“As you are aware, Kenya… has remained a campaigner for a sustainable environment. In light of this commitment, two years ago we banned the use, manufacture and sale of environmentally harmful plastics, polythene bags and packaging materials,” Uhuru Kenyatta said. “Building on this, today we are announcing another ban on single use plastics in all our protected areas.”
China
This year, China hosted the event, and the focus was very much on cleaning up our air. President Xi Jinping said: “Humankind only has one planet. Environmental conservation and sustainable development are the common responsibility of all countries. China will work with any and all to implement the 2030 agenda to protect our only planet.”
China has already gone a long way towards reducing pollution. Allocating more than $10 million to the air pollution reduction agenda, China has limited factory outputs and introduced 100% electric public transport in some cities.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
In the capital, Sarajevo, a ground-breaking yet bleak report was launched, entitled ‘Air Pollution and Human Health: The Case of the Western Balkans.’ The report claims that air pollution is responsible for almost 5,000 deaths in 19 Western Balkan cities, with people in these cities losing an average of 1.3 years of their lives. The report went on to make recommendations for the future, claiming that the Balkans need to alleviate energy poverty if they are going to find solutions to air pollution.
The report goes hand in hand with a new app called ‘Sarajevo Air’. This will help people to plan walking and cycling routes with the lowest levels of air pollution between their starting point and destination.
Chile
This World Environment Day, Chile made the announcement that the country would aim to be carbon neutral by 2050. This involves plans to close all 28 coal plants by 2040. At least eight of these plants will be closed by 2024, by which time coal will only have a 20% share of the electricity grid – a 20% reduction in a five-year period.
Chile is going to be hosting the COP25 UN climate talks in December 2019. This will build on COP24 held in Katowice, Poland last year, 9where governments agreed how to put the Paris Climate Change Agreement into practice.
India
India came up with a rather catchy way of drawing attention to the environment this year, with a brand new song called Hawa Aane De. The song features a number of big names from Bollywood and was the concept of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The song’s video focuses on young people’s futures, drawing much-needed attention to the urgency of reducing air pollution.
World Environment Day – the Birthday of our #BinForGreenSeas!
World Environment Day will always be a fantastic event, and it will always be fondly remembered as the birthday of our #BinForGreenSeas. We hope to be able to keep inspiring more people to work together to save our seas and to keep associating World Environment Day with the potential to do some good in the world.
What did you do for World Environment Day? Have you joined our mission to save oceans and marine life? Perhaps you live in a seaside location and want to know more about our lifesaving bins? Get in touch! Our team would love to hear from you.
We are now on a mission to get our bins on seafronts across the UK. We’ve overcome one of our biggest challenges to date by getting them into manufacture, and now we have to keep up the momentum. Can you help? 100% of our donations go to our projects – we’re run entirely by volunteers!