The Plastic-Free Neighbourhood : Earth Day Special Essay (1st Prize Winner) by Sree Kar Purkayastha, Grade VII, Funlish Language School

Olivia was returning home from school while riding her cycle. It usually takes her ten to fifteen minutes but today she is stuck in traffic for almost half an hour.

After ten more minutes she lost her patience, parked her cycle in a public stand and tried to walk home. She decided to rest by a small lake on her way home. Suddenly she saw a fish struggling. She went to an elderly man called Joe and asked for help. Luckily, Joe was expert in dealing with fishes. He told Olivia that the fish got stuck in a plastic bag. Olivia was shocked to hear that because when she was five years old, she used to play in that same lake and it was as clean as a whistle. She promised that she will try to clean the lake with her friends in the summer holidays. After a few months summer came, and so did the holidays. Olivia did not forget about her promise. It was hard, but she persuaded her friends to help her clean it. A few days passed by, Olivia and her friends were busy cleaning. Suddenly uncle Joe came to have a look at the lake, but was shocked to see that children were trying to clean it. The next thing he knew, he was helping Olivia and her friends clean the lake. He even invited his friends to help. Olivia was astonished and delighted seeing grownups helping her. Her school was supposed to reopen in another one week and they almost finished cleaning the lake. Once they finished cleaning the lake, Olivia was so happy and Joe was too. Jimmy, Joe’s friend told Olivia and her friends, “If you kids had not started cleaning this lake, this would never have been possible”. She felt honoured hearing all the praises from the elders. When her school reopened, she told all her friends and teachers about how she with the help of her neighbours, cleaned the lake. Her teachers were also astonished and praised her too. When she reached home, she decided to make another promise of not using plastic in their house anymore. Since Olivia had kept her other promise about cleaning the lake, her parents tried to not use plastic anymore too. Since then, plastic was banned from their house. Her parents threw every piece of plastic left in the house.

Seeing Olivia’s family, her neighbourhood also tried not to use plastic anymore. After a few months, there was not a trace of plastic in that neighbourhood. Since then, that village was named “The Plastic Free Neighbourhood”.

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