CBCGDF Received Another Letter on Reporting a School’s Mandatory Use of Plastic Book Covers
2019/4/1 18:39:00 本站

Recently, China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) has received another letter from a parent in Xinzhou (a city in Shanxi Province) with the screenshot of chat log in the WeChat group, reporting the compulsory use of plastic book covers in the school. What surprised me most is that the chat log shows that a textbook requires more than one covers.

According to the school's requirement, a textbook should be equipped with a white book cover and a plastic cover, in addition to its own plastic package. What "adequate" protection!

 

I used to cover books when I was a child. At that time, the quality of a paper is not as good as today's, and the plastic book cover is not popular then. Whenever we got the new textbooks, we wrapped them with out-of-date wall calendars and newspapers. The kid who wrapped the books neatly would be praised and admired by the peer. Wrapping textbooks turned out to be a pleasure at the beginning of a new semester. While holding the books with dedicate covers made by myself, I automatically would like to treasure the book. Moreover, teachers then paid more stress on cherishing textbooks, reminding us to be careful to open the book, rather than asking pupils to wrap in multiple covers.

 

As society advances, various plastic book covers have sprung up in the market. The plastic book cover facilitates the process of wrapping books, but it also deprives pupils of happiness in it.

 

The wide use of plastic book covers leads to the accumulation of garbage. A pupil, for instance, has over 120 textbooks from the first year of school to six years in total. That means each child needs at least 120 plastic book covers, a number which has not included the covers for exercise books and alternates. It is a considerable number if taking the total number of pupils in China into account, and the volume of consequent plastic rubbish will be huge.

 

On March 16, a male whale was found dead in the Philippines with 40kg of plastic bags in its stomach. It is the plastic that kills the whale for gastrorrhagia.

It is high time for us to make a change. Let's begin with school education and make more kids be aware of the negative influence brought by plastic pollution. Schools have the duty to popularize environmental protection, rather than force pupils to use plastic book covers under the name of treasured books.


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(Photo credit: an anonymous concerned Parent of a student)


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A baby whale died from ingesting 40kg of plastic bags. (Photo source: screengrab of CCTV news)


Original Chinese article:

http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/8078.html


By / Wang Yanqing