World Ocean Day - “The Scourge of Plastic Pollution”
• The plastic that ends up in the oceans can traverse the earth four times in a single year (1) • There are around 1.6 million square kilometers of plastic in the North Pacific, in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is 44.2 times the size of Taiwan (2) • Our free downloads aim to awaken the curiosity and encourage kids to be “little earth guardians” • Partners: national parks and national museums
Never Too Early
The story was first introduced to kids in Taiwan in 2017 via storytelling activities and printed picture books. Within two years, thanks to the efforts of Covestro’s Partners and the company’s volunteers, the award-winning environmental education story project3 has reached 34,275 kids across Taiwan. Kids from 96 schools even mailed and shared their commitments to the earth. “We (kids) can also help to make our sea cleaner,” said Ariel Ku, a child from one of the storytelling events.
“Through this kind of story education, kids can be encouraged to protect the environment and our planet,” said Zheng-Zhi Hsu, the Principal of the Taipei FuAn Elementary School. “Many thanks to Covestro for bringing this story to kids.”
Plastics are too valuable to throw away
“Plastics in the environment is one of the greatest challenges of our time,” said Dr. Christian Haessler, Head of Sustainability at Covestro. “By turning the physical picture book into a story app full of interactions, we hope we can instill the ‘3Rs’ [reduce, reuse and recycle] and waste management knowledge to children and the next generation via a sustainable and fun approach. If all of us work together, we can encourage effective waste management. Also education will contribute to stop littering our oceans.”
Covestro is a founding member of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste4 – a worldwide coalition of around 30 companies working in chemicals, plastics, consumer goods and waste. Plastics used by these companies, for example, plastics used in vehicles to make them safer, lighter and more fuel efficient, can be recycled mechanically after they have served their original purpose.
Involve kids in the app
“Bright Minds for a Brighter World” is a narrative-based, multi-language mobile application that hopes to shed light on the devastating impact of litter on the marine environment. We want to arouse the curiosity and pique the interest of children through fun waste-management activities, such as matching types of litter with the correct trash can, and through the interactive story where they can release sea creatures from plastic waste with the help of the little guardians. Kids can also record and share their own version of the story with their friends to show them how they can look after the environment as well. The app also provides immersion reading features for kids so that they can pick up new words with ease.
“Environmental protection can only be successful if the government, industry and society work hand in hand,” said Michael Lee, Managing Director of Covestro Taiwan. “We really appreciated and feel very honored to have ongoing partnerships with the National Parks, The National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium, The National Science and Technology Museum, and The National Museum of Natural Science.”
Free downloads
The “Bright Minds for a Brighter World” story app can be downloaded from both the Apple Store and Play Store for free. The story is narrated by popular musical actors, including Katie Partlow and Henry Hsueh-Han Lu. Kids who write down their commitment and color the earth will also have a chance to receive a special prize.*
Apple App Store: https://apple.co/2NhXjf7
Google Play Store: https://bit.ly/2LmDReM
The pictures and stories in the app were developed based on the storybook “Bright Minds for a Brighter World: The Adventures of Young Guardians” (copyright © 2016 by Covestro (Thailand) Co., Ltd.). Covestro Taiwan also thanks Rumu Innovation Co. Ltd. for helping the company to develop the app.
1 Source: https://www.unenvironment.org/fr/node/21824
2 Source: https://www.theoceancleanup.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch/
3 Winner of 2018 APAC Excellence Award in Corporate Responsibility Category: https://bit.ly/2FzEluc
4 More information: https://bit.ly/31YLApg
About Covestro:
With 2018 sales of EUR 14.6 billion, Covestro is among the world’s largest polymer companies. Business activities are focused on the manufacturing of high-tech polymer materials and the development of innovative solutions for products used in many areas of daily life. The main segments served are the automotive, construction, wood processing and furniture, and the electrical and electronics industries. Other sectors include sports and leisure, cosmetics, health and the chemical industry itself. Covestro has 30 production sites worldwide and employed approximately 16,800 people (calculated as full-time equivalents) at the end of 2018.
Forward-looking statements
This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Covestro AG. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Covestro’s public reports which are available at www.covestro.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.
*Covestro reserves the right to change or terminate the activity at any time.