Melati and Isabel were only 12 and 10 years old when they decided to tackle plastic pollution. They found plastic everywhere in their everyday lives. They saw it when they walked to the rice ields or when they went to the beaches.

They were aware of this growing problem with plastic in places it should not be. They felt the urgency to protect the environment and the natural world.

The sisters began a movement, ‘an annual island clean up’. The movement was for everyone in Bali. Early on a Sunday morning they carried megaphones and stood on the back of a latbed truck. Thousands of children and teenagers with their parents came out to help. Volunteers from local restaurants and hotels also showed up. They collected trash at 115 places around the island. They picked up plastic trash on the beaches, the rivers and the streets.

The two sisters became local heroes, and they won international acclaim for their awareness campaign.

Word Box

come out (base form)/came out (past form): datang
clean up (base form)/cleaned up (past form): membersihkan
collect (base form)/collected (past form): mengumpulkan
decide (base form)/decided (past form): memutuskan
pick up (base form)/picked up (past form): memungut
realize (base form)/realized (past form): menyadari
show up (base form)/showed up (past form): datang
acclaim: pengakuan
annual: tiap tahun
contributor: penyumbang
latbed truck: mobil pickup
megaphones: alat pengeras suara
movement: gerakan
reality: kenyataan
teenage years: masa remaja
urgency: urgensi
volunteers: sukarelawan
growing = yang semakin bertambah
tirelessly = tanpa lelah

c. Answer the questions in the following table based on the story and Picture 4.14.

Worksheet 4.19

Answer key : 

a. Look at Picture 4.14 and discuss the following questions with a friend. You may use Indonesian.

1. What did the people in the pictures decide to do?

Answer : The people in the pictures decided to clean up and collect plastic waste with the intention of recycling it.

Arti : Orang-orang di gambar memutuskan untuk membersihkan dan mengumpulkan sampah plastik dengan niat untuk mendaur ulangnya."

2. Who mainly showed up to help collect the trash in the pictures?

Answer : Society, teenager and children.