The 11th Eco-generation

Environmental Essay Competition

Beat Platic Pollution

If you can't reuse it, refuse it

Samsung Engineering jointly with UN Environment would like to launch 'The 11^thEco-generation Environmental Essay Competition' inviting the youth all over the world to raise awareness on the theme of the upcoming World Environment Day - Beat Plastic Pollution.

As many of you know, World Environment Day is the United Nations' flagship day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the environment. Over the years, it has grown to be one of the largest global platforms for public outreach celebrated by over a million of people.

'Beat Plastic Pollution', the theme for World Environment Day 2018, is a call to action for all of us to come together to combat one of the great environmental challenges of our time. Chosen by this year's host, India, the theme of World Environment Day 2018 invites us all to consider how we can make changes in our everyday lives to reduce the heavy burden of plastic pollution on our natural places, our wildlife – and our own health.

While plastic has many valuable uses, we have become over reliant on single-use or disposable plastic – with severe environmental consequences. Around the world, 1 million plastic drinking bottles are purchased every minute. 500 billion disposable plastic bags are used worldwide every year. In total, 50 per cent of the plastic we use is single use.

Nearly one third of the plastic packaging we use escapes collection systems, which means that it ends up clogging our city streets and polluting our natural environment. Every year, up to 13 million tons of plastic leak into our oceans, where it smoothers coral reefs and threatens vulnerable marine wildlife. The plastic that ends up in the oceans can circle the Earth four times in a single year, and it can persist for up to 1,000 years before it fully disintegrates.

To find out more about the competition, please visit Home>E-gen Event>Monthly Event>[World] The 11th Eco-generation Environmental Essay Competition.