Plastic Pollution: Young people take lead in disposing plastic waste in Norway

World
Europe

03:17

As world leaders prepare for the next UN Climate Summit in Poland, another major environmental problem continues to make headlines: plastic pollution. CGTN's Guy Henderson reports from Norway on the young people who aren't waiting around for their leaders to act.

The message is clear: plastic rubbish is ruining the planet. The students of Haimdal secondary school in the Norwegian city of Trondheim are determined to spread the word through the performing arts. They might be young. But on environmental issues, they're the adults in the room.

"We all think of the environment as this big thing that we can't do anything about. That we're doomed and that's it. But through this process we've learnt that together we can actually do something."

"It doesn't take much to make a difference and we want to show the audience that. You can just take out your trash, and you're doing something very important."

Start with the small things: that's what the group Nature and Youth believe. They work in schools like Heimdal to raise awareness. And head out often to pick up litter.

"We have this thing called 'snoos' and it's this tobacco thing – we drop it everywhere but it's made of plastic."

Much of it would otherwise end up in the ocean.

BENEDICTE PENTHA NATURE & YOUTH "What will that look like in 50 years? What will that do to our future? It really frustrates me that the people who are in charge of this, the people who have power, most likely won't even be alive when we have to do deal with this."

Luckily, Trondheim is a global marine tech hub. The municipal government here – and in the capital Oslo – are now using underwater drones to find problem spots.

ERIK DYRKOREN FOUNDER, BLUEYE ROBOTICS "It's a very efficient way for these authorities to use our type of underwater drones to map that -- compared to conventional technology."

These volunteer divers then know where to look.

GUY HENDERSON TRONDHEIM, NORWAY "Norway has a plan to go carbon neutral by 2030 so it has some of the most ambitious environmental policies in the world. And yet there's a certaint irony that reaches right to the heart of Norwegian identity. Its beautiful fjords are filling up, with plastic waste."

And this is the consequence: last year a whale washed up on a Norwegian beach. It was put down, after ingesting more than 30 plastic bags. That shocked the nation into action.

LINE FJORDSTAD GREEN PARTY "Everybody's eyes were opened – we now know that this is a problem. Nobody can say that plastic bags are not human-made like one can say about climate change."

These young Norwegians are the future. They're not giving up on it. GUY HENDERSON, CGTN, TRONDHEIM.