China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) has received letters from parents, in which parents have noted that almost all of the primary schools in Yunan Province, including Mingtong Primary School, Panlong Primary School, Hongqi Primary School and Primary School Attached to Yunnan Normal University, asked pupils to use transparent plastic book covers, and they hope relevant state departments could face this issue and give priority to teenager health.
This is not the first time for CBCGDF to hear from similar letters. Just a few days ago, a parent in Beijing has told CBCGDF that her child was asked to use plastic book covers, a compulsory requirement which is made by the school.
The tradition of using plastic dust jacket prevails nationwide among primary and junior schools. Therefore, CBCGDF writes to Ministry of Education of the PRC, putting forward three suggestions:
1. To call a halt to the usage of the plastic book cover, which is also in accordance with President Xi's initiative of saving resources and protecting the environment.
2. To print advertising slogans on the cover of textbooks, like “plastic dust jacket is resource-wasting and environment-unfriendly.”
3. To set up an effective recycling mechanism for textbooks.
Since 2018, CBCGDF has paid high attention to the compulsive requirement of using plastic book covers and held educational lectures in primary schools to elaborate on the negative influence of plastic covers on the environment. Moreover, if CBCGDF would like to eradicate this problem, it is essential to get support from competent departments and cooperate with them.
According to CBCGDF, most primary and junior high schools have mandatory or semi-mandatory requirements for students to cover textbooks, and most of them prefer to choose plastic book covers. It is an astonishing number of plastic product consumption after taking the population of pupils and the number of textbooks for each student in the new semester into account, and consequent plastic wastes, in particular, should not be ignored. (According to statistics by China Youth & Children Research Center, the numbers of students in primary school and junior high school amount to 105.64 million and 57.3 million respectively.)
From the perspective of physical health, some plastic book covers on the market are lack of basic commodity information, including the names of manufacturer and enterprise, addresses and contacts. According to researches, 83% of plastic dust jackets are health-threatening, and PAEs, a chemical component prevalent within plastic products, has similar physiological effect with physiological function of estrogen, causing severe endocrine disorder particularly for teenagers who are in the critical period of physical growth.
CBCGDF hopes to strengthen education for cutting the use of plastic products among teenagers, an action which will provide a safe environment for the young, as well as promote domestic ecological environmental protection.
(Photo credit: CBCGDF)
Original Chinese article:
http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/7987.html
By / Wang Yanqing