Photo credit: Richard Whitcombe/Shutterstock. Retrieved from thegef.org
Excerpt from thegef.org
The Implementing Sustainable Low and Non-Chemical Development in Small Island Developing States (ISLANDS) program calls on young climate activists today, launching a new app to encourage over 100,000 young people around the world to turn the tide on plastic pollution.
The Tide Turners App builds on the momentum of the Tide Turners Plastic Challenge developed as part of UNEP’s Clean Seas Campaign to promote youth focused community-based solutions for the prevention of plastic pollution. Since February 2019, Tide Turners has been rolled out in 35 countries, reaching over 588,000 young people.
The ISLANDS program, funded by the Global Environment Facility, has reimagined the original challenge as a social and gamified app, complete with a leader board and story sharing functionality, with users encouraged to complete three challenges:
- Interviewing an adult about the changes in plastics pollution they have witnessed or producing a piece of art about a world without plastics.
- Recording their own plastics consumption.
- Developing an Action Plan, to bring what they have learned into action.
The app was developed in collaboration with young people from Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and is targeted at those aged 12–25, particularly in SIDS. Children account for near 30 percent of the population in the Caribbean.
