OUR PLASTIC / so+ba

Due to growing awareness of the need to prevent marine pollution, there is now an international movement to reduce single-use plastic products such as straws. Living a more eco- friendly lifestyle is now a global trend. Zou-no-hana Terrace, too, is taking efforts to reduce plastic items at its cafabout 10 different countries representing a week’s worth of plastic waste by one household in each city. Being confronted with different plastic waste from abroad gave the audience the opportunity to experience and understand this global issue, which we all share, and to encourage them to take action in reducing “OUR PLASTIC”.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Besides the exhibition, a workshop in using plastic waste as a material was also conducted by so+ba. Following the screening of a documentary film, a talk was organized on marine pollution and recycling. Although it only lasted two weeks, the exhibition, which revealed the ubiquity of plastic waste, attracted large numbers of visitors interested in perhaps the most pressing environmental issue of our times.

PARCEL FROM JAPAN

______In 2016, the world generated 242million tonnes of plastic waste, 12% of all municipal solid waste. 

What a Waste 2.0

______Some 90 percent of floating marine debris is plastic, of which nearly 62 percent is food and beverage packaging. 

______By 2050, plastic in the oceans will outweigh fish.

Ellen MacArthur Foundation and WEF

With this numbers in mind we started to think about “Our Plastic” exhibition. Our goal was to create awareness for this growing global problem. 

We started in our daily life, collecting one weeks’ plastic waste and were surprised by the amount, much larger than what we thought. To visualize this global problem, we asked Port Journey members to also collect all their plastic waste during one week and send it to Yokohama. We have received 8 parcels from 4 continents.

We hung the plastic, received from all over the world, with fishing threads on eye level at Zou-no-hana Terrace and created a floating sea of plastic. Nice to look at, but when you think about how much plastic the city of Yokohama would produce in one week, or Japan…

To understand where the plastic came from and how we can avoid using it, we created informative panels, accompanying the exhibits, focusing on our daily level.

For the workshop we fished for plastic in the sea close to Zou-no-hana Terrace (incredible what was floating close by) and used the found plastic-trash to create “sea-monster” collages.

The “Our Plastic” exhibition aimed to visualize the negative impact of our consumptive practices and reminds us of the ongoing damage to our environment. Recycling or burning does not solve the problem

Every piece of plastic we can avoid makes a difference.