EU Parliament Vote to Ban Single-Use Plastic Is A Victory for Oceans

In a landmark vote, the European Union Parliament voted for a complete ban on single-use plastic goods to stop ocean pollution.

Photo by Justin Hofman / Wildlife Photographer of the Year

With a 571-33 majority vote, the bill introduced by Frédérique Ries, passed with overwhelming approval and initiates a ban on single-use plastic goods ranging from cutlery and plates to straws, cotton buds, drink stirrers and balloon sticks. The ban also extends to a reduction in single-use plastic cups and food containers. The goal is to have the new legislation in effect throughout the European Union by 2021. The ruling will also effect the UK before the end of the Brexit transition. Additional plastic ban measures are already being incorporated in the UK and several EU countries.

Image via NOAA and BBC

Public concerns about ocean pollution have been growing, where the amount of plastic will outnumber fish, if plastic pollution continues at the same rate happening today. As much as eight million tons of plastic end up in oceans annually. More than 80 percent of all pollution in oceans comes from plastics.

After David Attenborough's BBC Blue Planet series aired, public support for plastic bans surged, leading to the proposed EU legislation in May of this year.

Plastics That are Banned

The new legislation targets common single-use plastic products that have been literally oceans for decades now and are also responsible for injuring ocean wildlife. Plastics spread quickly by traveling on ocean currents. While the plastics to be banned account for 150,000 tonnes of plastic annually in European waters alone, only a small fraction of the eight million tons of plastic entering ocean waters worldwide, the step is still significant as it prevents further pollution and encourages societal change. These ten common plastic objects account for 70 percent of plastic pollution entering European waters.

Image via EU Commission

Banned items ranging from cotton buds to plastic straws and cutlery are also easily replaceable via cardboard containers, paper straws and reusable metal cutlery. Environmental damage caused by plastic pollution in Europe is estimated to cost 22 billion euros by 2030.

Image via BBC

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Effects on Marine Life

Plastic in the ocean has a serious deleterious effect on marine life, killing fish and large aquatic mammals. Whales often eat plastic bags and are then unable to eat real food and thus die of suffocation and starvation.

Plastic breaks down in the water into smaller pieces or micro plastic and never completes decomposes. Instead, these micro fragments end up in fish and are consumed by other marine mammals, land mammals and human beings. The phenomenon of plastic pollution is widespread. Large amounts of plastic waste also wash up on beaches, where sea birds, turtles and other animals chew them and often die from poisoning and suffocation.

Starfish specimen

Deep Sea Creatures Ingest Plastic For Over 40 Years
New research by the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) in Oban published in Environmental Pollution, has led to the discovery of plastics such as polyester and nylon in the bodies of deep sea creatures for at least 40 years. Researchers examined animal specimens collected underwater at a depth of 6,561 feet or 2,000 meters in the Rockall Trough off the Western Isles in the northeast Atlantic Ocean. They found eight different types of plastic in over 48 percent of starfish, sea stars and brittle stars collected from 1976 to 2015.

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The UK Plastics Pact (WRAP)

More than 40 companies have signed up a pact called the UK Plastics Pact by the sustainability group WRAP to eliminate single-use packaging via better design and manage the entire plastics value chain from supply to design, distribution, consumption and recycling to prevent plastic waste and pollution. The goal is to cut down plastic pollution drastically within the next seven years. Companies who have signed the pact include Coca-Cola and Asda as well as trade associations and branches of government. Together, these companies account for as much as 80 percent of all plastic packaging in UK supermarkets.

Consumer goods providers Procter & Gamble and Marks & Spencer, among others, have agreed to make all plastic packaging recyclable or compostable by 2025.

Promises made to reduce plastic pollution include:

• Eliminating difficult or unnecessary single use plastic packaging through better design

• Making 100% of plastic packaging reusable or recyclable or compostable

• Ensuring 30% of plastic packaging is recyclable material

WRAP’s initiative is supported by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, an organization that discovered that 95 percent of all plastic packaging is used only once.|

Single-use plastic is banned in several cities and areas of the world now.

The city of Coral Gables where our HQ is located, has already banned the use of single-use plastic bags. We’ve also taken some measures at Elf and will continue to improve as we learn. We welcome your comments and ideas. Thanks for reading!

Profile: Walt Disney - It All Began With a Mouse

Known for his classic films that brightened everyone’s childhoods, wildly entertaining theme parks and popular movies today that carry his name, Walt Disney undoubtedly altered our culture forever and inspired countless artists and storytellers worldwide. Let’s take a closer look.

Mickey Mouse via Disney

Photo via United Artists

“If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing was started with a dream and a mouse.”

— Walt Disney

There were loud, audible gasps from the audience and then laughs and shrieks as Steamboat Willie, a short black and white animated film kept going on. The audience was transfixed watching a little mouse drive a steamboat and see his various shenanigans along the way. No one got up to leave. “Who created this?” someone from the audience shouted as the short film ended to a loud round of applause.

A man seated in the back of the movie theater, who had created this cartoon character, laughed too. Walter Elias Disney, better known as Walt Disney, would end up winning 22 Academy Awards and being nominated an additional 59 more times for his innovative animations and motion-picture cartoon films. Few individuals have inspired the hearts and minds of so many children and adults alike, creating memorable and beloved characters that outlive their time period and persist in the imagination and popular culture as Walt Disney did.

Born on December 5, 1901, in Hermosa, Illinois, Walt Disney, would later become a world-famous animator and pioneer of cartoon movies. Walt created the cartoon character Mickey Mouse and founded the motion-picture company, Walt Disney Productions with his brother Roy and the founder of the theme parks Disneyland and Walt Disney World. He was both an exceptional leader and innovative artist. Beyond his animations and movies, Disney was also a successful entrepreneur, inspiring leader and excellent communicator. He inspired countless others to follow their hearts and be bold in pursuing their ideas. Here are nine essential lessons we have learned from this world-famous, beloved storyteller, animator, producer and entrepreneur.

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1. Do Work You Love

Work consumes a large part of your life. Hence doing work that you have a natural passion for, is advisable.

“Money doesn’t excite me- my ideas excite me.”

— Walt Disney

From an early age, Walt loved to draw. He spent countless hours drawing and doodling as a child, giving his drawings away to neighbors and friends. In between odd jobs, Walt would draw and sell his pictures. He took drawing and photography classes at McKinley High School in Chicago and contributed cartoons for the school paper, while taking night classes at the Chicago Art Institute. He dropped out of school to go to the Army, but was considered underage and was turned down. Walt instead joined the Red Cross, working as an ambulance driver for a year in France. He returned home in 1919, pursuing a career as a newspaper artist. Walt never lost his love for drawing and storytelling through visual mediums despite taking on odd jobs. He was determined to create cartoons and draw for a living and that persistence paid off. Walt was incredibly successful in life, pursuing his passion and his legacy lives on through the production company and theme parks he founded.

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Image via Disney

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2. Commit: Take Your Work Seriously

Yes, you got to have strong passion for your work to continue to do it year after year. But passion alone is not enough and your love for an idea or creating something, does not mean it is necessarily what anyone else wants. If you blindly pursue your own interests without any attention to what people want, you can have personal satisfaction, but you will find difficulty in making a career out of it. You have to focus that passion and pursue your passion in avenues that people are eager to engage with and want. This thinking is similar to our business model approach, where you find the intersection between what you love to do, what you are good at and what people pay you well to do.

“You don’t build it for yourself. You know what people want and you build it for them.”

— Walt Disney

Walt Disney was committed to his work. He was focused and paid careful attention to details. Disney was very talented, but he did not take that ability for granted. He did not procrastinate for hours on end or avoid pursuing his passion with excuses. He took the initiative to follow his ideas, creating them carefully. He applied himself.

“When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably.”

— Walt Disney

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3. Have Initiative

Disney knew he had a talent for drawing, animation and storytelling. He was eager to use new technologies and already had success winning the loyalties and affections of audiences through his own cartoon series and ideas he had pitched. But to take the plunge of launching your own business and putting your time, money and reputation on the line, is no small feat for anyone, especially when you are pursuing a path that has not been charted out before. Disney was a pioneer and he was unabashedly so. While he was considered a shy, reserved man in private, Disney did not hesitate to pursue commercial opportunities and market his ideas to grow his business. He had strong initiative.

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”

— Walt Disney

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4. Persist and Overcome Failures

Success did not happen immediately. It took persistence and commitment over a long period of time. Walt got a job at an art studio after he returned from his service with the Red Cross in 1919 and began experimenting with his own animations. He started his own cartoon animation series, Laugh-O-Grams with a friend, Fred Harman, whom he had hired previously. While the series was very popular, the company itself was not financially stable and went bankrupt after just one year. Disney moved to Hollywood, CA, with his brother Roy and started their own Disney Brother Studios.

Upon arrival in California, Disney succeeded in getting his first deal to create a new cartoon character, Alice and a series of shorts at $1,500 each for a New York distributor Margaret Winkler and her husband, Charles Mintz. Disney also created his own character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, but unfortunately was unable to use the concept as the couple stole the copyright. Despite these setbacks, Disney did not give up. He went to work immediately to create an entirely new character, called Mickey Mouse. He made two short films, Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho, with Mickey Mouse, but failed to win distribution. Filmmakers were just starting to experiment with adding sound to film and Disney hopped on the bandwagon, creating a short film with sound, starring Mickey Mouse called Steamboat Willie. Walt became the new voice for Mickey and the cartoon was an instant sensation. Disney’s persistence and hard work had paid off.

In 1929, Disney also created Silly Symphonies, featuring Mickey's new friends Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto. The first color cartoon, Flowers and Trees, went on to win an Oscar. In 1933, Disney produced The Three Little Pigs whose title song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" would become a theme for the country in the midst of the Great Depression. Disney’s commercial success even though the country was in a depression was remarkable.

Eight years later on December 21, 1937, Disney premiered Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated film, in Los Angeles. The animated color film with sound produced a whopping $1.499 million, despite the Great Depression, winning hearts and minds all over the country and raking in eight Oscars. 

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

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5. Embrace New Technology

During the 1920s and 1930s, technology such as Technicolor and sound were considered daring, risky and were even opposed by actors and directors. Despite this resistance in Hollywood, audiences would soon embrace talking pictures or “talkies” as predicted by Wesley Stout of the Saturday Evening Post in 1929. Film innovators like Disney benefited by adopting the new technology.

Walt Disney created the first full full-length animated movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which went on to become one of the most popular movies of its time. Disney was also the first Hollywood studio executive who was willing to work with television. He shared the “Mickey Mouse Club” on television, which children loved. The Disney brand grew in popularity through the television show and made an indelible positive impression on children everywhere.

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6. Don’t Worry About Naysayers and What Everyone Else Thinks

Taking advice and letting other people make decisions for you are not the same thing. If you let someone else make your decisions for you, it becomes very difficult for you to express your own abilities and ideas. When Disney proposed his idea for the Snow White project, a full-length feature animated movie, animators, producers and directors opposed the idea, saying that it was not commercially viable and would be a disaster among audiences. His wife and brother were also apprehensive and did their best to convince him to drop the project. Half-way through the movie production, Disney ran out of money but he did not quit. He took the raw film with him and showed clips to new producers, seeking out funding. Eventually, he did secure funding, thus saving both his film and his studio. Disney was also advised to not mix human actors with animated characters as he did on television shows and that having a mouse character would scare away women. In addition to his friends, family and colleagues being worried about his ideas for theme parks, Disney faced financial disappointments when he aimed to get funding. Despite his commercial success with numerous movies, Disney was turned down over 300 times about his theme park concept, until he cemented a deal with television studios.

Aren’t you glad that Disney did not take those words too seriously and did not give up even when practically everyone he met, told him that his ideas would not work? His response was, “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”

“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”

— Walt Disney

Image via Disney

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs via Disney

When Disney finally premiered Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in Los Angeles, CA, the movie received a standing ovation. The film garnered $1.5 million during the Great Depression, an incredible feat that showed how compelling Disney’s characters were and how audiences loved the movie’s storytelling, use of color and sound. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was also the first film ever to have its own complete merchandising campaign in place when the movie was released.

The tremendous success of the film enabled him to continue his dream and finance new feature films. After all that he had gone through, Disney could have taken his large profits and gone on to other things like numerous artists and entrepreneurs have done. He did not though because his dream was much bigger and he still had a lot that he wanted to achieve.

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7. Don’t Rest on Your Laurels, Keep Going

Walt Disney did not settle with his first success of Snow White, but immediately began his next projects - Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi and more. After creating his iconic character Mickey Mouse, Disney went on to create additional characters, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Pluto and many more. He also kept refining his characters so they would continually improve.

Walt Disney Studios would go on to make a string of full-length animated films, Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942). The animated movies that Walt Disney Studio produced, stood out for their lovable characters and compassionate storytelling, affecting the perspectives of both children and adults worldwide.

Disney’s growth led to the creation of a new campus for Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, CA by December 1939.

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8. Support People

“You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.”

— Walt Disney

Disney was an inspiring storyteller and his stories extended beyond his films and television shows to the studio with his employees. He would tell his employees stories in a lot of detail and inspire them. Disney was known for being exacting and also very appreciative. He would hire people more talented than himself, pay for their additional education and encourage them to be their best. Disney also gained the support, strong loyalty and affection of his employees.

Video via PBS

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9. Keep A Child’s Curiosity and Love of Play

“Too many people grow up. That’s the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up. They forget. They don’t remember what it’s like to be 12 years old. They patronize, they treat children as inferiors. Well I won’t do that.”

— Walt Disney

What would the world be like without Disneyland and Walt Disney World? Stepping on to the grounds of Disneyland reminds you of being a kid immediately and offers a place for both children and adults to relax, have fun and play, enjoy themselves and be inspired. When Disneyland, Walt Disney’s first theme park, opened in Anaheim, CA, actor and future president Ronald Reagan inaugurated the new theme park. Over the years, Disneyland has expanded to Florida with Walt Disney World and overseas in Japan, France and more. The theme park is beloved to children as a place where they can explore Disney stories they love through games, rides, events and meeting Disney characters. While Walt Disney has passed on, his legacy remains and continues to flourish as Walt Disney Studios has grown over the years, expanding its offerings to include the popular Marvel and Star Wars franchises. Today the name Walt Disney is known all over the world and is synonymous with a child’s imagination, colorful animation, storytelling and movie magic.

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About Our Profiles and Why We Create Them

We’ve written these profiles about individuals whose innovations or creations offered significant benefit to society. In a few instances, we also have profiles about people who each executed one unique and remarkable act that had a tremendous positive impact on a large community or the world at large. We have created these profile stories to learn more about these individuals and to inspire you, our reader, to take positive action in your own life.

For aspiring entrepreneurs or individuals who wish to create new products and services and bring their ideas to life, it is more important to know the motivations and processes of high achieving individuals than all the specific details of their achievements. By learning more about these processes, environmental influences and their personal lives, you can gain more insight into the qualities, motivations and methods of these highly successful and unique individuals. This in turn, can help you achieve more in your own life. Read more of our Profiles and learn with us! Have an individual in mind that you would like us to profile? Tell us at hello@elf.agency.

Restoring the Night Watch: The Rijksmuseum Reimagines How the Public Interacts with Art

A Museum’s Quest for Perpetual Renewal Shows Its Deep Awareness of What People Love

Image via Rijksmuseum

Yesterday, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam announced that the public will be able to watch as The Night Watch, Dutch master painter Rembrandt’s celebrated masterpiece, is restored. The project is scheduled to begin in July 2019 and the entire process will be viewable in person at the museum and online.

The museum’s approach to sharing the painting’s restoration as it happens, reveals both a modern sensibility and a keen awareness of what people love. Recognizing that audiences today increasingly turn online for art, entertainment and culture, the museum’s leadership is willing to show the art restoration process as it happens.

Other masterpieces by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Marten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit have already been restored. Restoring a masterpiece such as The Night Watch is no easy feat. The Rijksmuseum has enlisted the support of researchers, conservators and restorers both locally and all over the world to assist and thoroughly examine and restore the painting to its original full glory. The treatment plan includes imaging techniques, high-resolution photography and computer analysis. The museum could have chosen to close down the exhibit during the process. Instead, the museum has chosen to allow viewing both in person and online via a digital platform. The painting will be encased in a state-of-the-art clear glass chamber.

The painting’s restoration coincides with the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt’s death. The Rijksmuseum is bringing together a comprehensive collection of all of Rembrandt’s paintings, drawings and prints for the first time ever in 2019 in their exhibit “The Year of Rembrandt.”

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The Night Watch, A National Treasure

Image via Rijksmuseum

“The Night Watch is one of the most famous paintings in the world. It belongs to us all, and that is why we have decided to conduct the restoration within the museum itself – and everyone, wherever they are, will be able to follow the process online.”

— Taco Dibbits, General Director, Rijksmuseum

Rembrandt Self-Portrait, 1660

One of the most beloved exhibits by far is The Night Watch, showcased at the Rijksmuseum in a special Gallery of Honor. Considered the national treasure, The Night Watch is an oil painting created by Dutch master painter Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. The mayor of Amsterdam, Frans Banninck Cocq, commissioned the painting in 1642 to depict his shooting company. The mayor was also the leader of the civic guard of Amsterdam. The painting depicts officers under the command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch. It is Rembrandt’s only painting of military personnel and is striking for its bold depiction with officers in motion as compared to seated and static poses typical of the period. The large painting, measuring 11 feet by 14 feet, is striking and innovative in comparison to works by Rembrandt’s peers. The updated gallery exhibit now showcases other artworks of the time period in sharp contrast.

The museum first opened in 1800 in the Hague and then moved to Amsterdam eight years later. in 1885, a new principal Rijksmuseum building designed around The Night Watch by architect Pierre Cuyper opened. The only painting returned to its original location in the Gallery of Honor in the Rijksmuseum after the museum’s extensive ten-year renovation, The Night Watch is treated with such reverence, akin to an altar with its own cathedral-like entrance and stained glass and wall decorations. The painting also has its own escape slide created in 1934 to help quickly remove the painting in case of an emergency.

Image via Rijksmuseum

In addition to works by Rembrandt, the Rijksmuseum also contains artworks by other famous Dutch Golden Age painters such as Johannes Vermeer and Frans Hais. The museum also houses over 8,000 works of art and history and over one million objects from 1200 to 2000. Vermeer was famous for his use of bright pigments that were rare and expensive at the time such as ultramarine in The Milkmaid, madder lake in Christ in the house of Martha and Mary, vermillion, ochre, lead-tin-yellow, bone black and azurite.

The Milkmaid by Johannes Vermeer

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Creating Memorable, Personal Experiences

Image via Rijksmuseum

“How do we craft narratives that will resonate with our visitors on a personal level?”

— Taco Dibbits, General Director, Rijksmuseum

The Rijksmuseum, a Dutch national art museum that was intended to house outstanding works of art by Dutch painters and visual artists, when it was inaugurated over two hundred years ago, quietly slipped into oblivion like many other museums across the world as modern buildings and office spaces competed for attention by the end of the twentieth century. However, concerted efforts by the Dutch government, the city of Amsterdam and corporate sponsors, helped revitalize the institution by offering a complete transformation of the museum. This effort spanned ten years. In 2013, a transformed Rijksmuseum opened its doors to the public, revealing beautiful spaces with redesigned modern galleries that carefully and lovingly showcased artworks with historical context for each era.

Image via Rijksmuseum

By creating a new chronological path for each century’s artwork, the museum was able to link art and history effectively, thus truly becoming a national museum that reflected Dutch history and culture, while offering visitors a clear sense of time and beauty. This new focus on how an individual experiences walking through the museum and interacting with exhibits, transformed visitor experiences and ignited interest worldwide. Since then, the Rijksmuseum has attracted over 2.5 million visitors annually.

Reimagining public spaces tied to national history while remaining culturally relevant in modern times, takes considerable effort. The Rijksmuseum’s leadership and staff has demonstrated how to do this elegantly with keen observations of modern culture and technology by cultivating an open mind and inviting collaboration and new perspectives, while keeping a sense of curiosity about the world.