First launched in 1970, Earth Day is to demonstrate support for environmental protection. About one billion people in nearly 200 countries are involved in the annual event, with "Planet vs. Plastics" being the official theme for 2024.

As the coordinator of the Earth Day events, the nonprofit Earthday.org calls for widespread awareness on the health risk of plastics and a 60 percent global reduction in plastic production by 2040.

Much more than an imminent environmental issue, plastics pose a profound threat to human health. Global plastic production has exceeded 380 million tonnes per year. More plastic has been produced in the past decade than in the entire 20th century, and the yield keeps growing exponentially.

More than 500 billion plastic bags were produced globally last year, which is at least one million plastic bags per minute. Many of them are used for only a few minutes, but take centuries to degrade. The microplastics they eventually become have been detected all over the planet, even in human blood.

Last year, 100 billion plastic bottles were sold in the United States, of which most are not recycled into new ones. 95 percent of all plastics in the U.S. will not be recycled at all. The other 5 percent are recycled as inferior products, or shipped to poorer countries for "recycling."

Bamboo has been increasingly in demand as a green alternative to throw-away plastic in China. In November 2023, China initiated a three-year action plan to tackle climate change and curb pollution through replacing plastic products with bamboo alternatives. According to this plan, bamboo items used as replacements for plastics will see further improvement in their quality, variety, scale and profitability by 2025.

Boasting a forest coverage rate of 24.02 percent and over 7 million hectares of bamboo, China is endowed with favorable conditions to grow this particular type of plant, and is therefore dubbed as the "kingdom of bamboo."

The country has over 10,000 companies that specialize in bamboo processing. The output value of the bamboo industry has grown from 82 billion yuan ($11 billion) in 2010 to 415 billion yuan ($57 billion) last year. The output value is expected to surpass 1 trillion yuan ($138 billion) by 2035, China's National Forestry and Grassland Administration said.

Anji County in east China's Zhejiang Province hosts nearly 70,000 hectares of bamboo forests, with an annual output of 500,000 tonnes of moso bamboo. More than 900 bamboo product enterprises in the county are encouraged and rewarded to explore innovative business in replacing plastic with bamboo, which makes Anji "center of bamboo innovation" in China. A complex bamboo industrial chain has been formed in the area.

"About 6,000 sets of toiletries were used every year," said a homestay manager in the county. "Those disposable supplies caused tons of plastic waste. Now that we have replaced them with bamboo products, the cost has been reduced while the environment improves."

Established in Zhejiang, the "Home of Blue" is part of the Blue Circle environmental initiative. By using blockchain technology, the innovative marine plastic treatment model monitors the entire lifecycle of plastic pollution, encompassing collection, regeneration, re-manufacturing and re-sale.

Since the initiative was promoted in 2020, over 230 enterprises, 10,180 ships and more than 6,300 people have participated in the collection of about 11,000 tonnes of marine debris, including 2,254 tonnes of plastic products, according to the provincial Department of Ecology and Environment.

The initiative won the 2023 Champions of the Earth award, the most prestigious environmental recognition from the United Nations.

(With input from Xinhua; cover via CFP, designed by CGTN's Jia Jieqiong.)