Don’t Waste the Waste
By TH!NK by IBI
Date
April 26, 2018
Currently, only 9% of the worlds plastic is recycled, with a large portion of it coming from cities. Just this last week, New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, proposed a bill that would place a statewide ban on single-use plastic bags by 2019. NYC councilmen propose to take this even further within the urban core by prohibiting the sale of disposable plastic bottles in public areas of the city, including parks, beaches and golf courses.
While banning plastic products is a great way to reduce the amount of waste a city produces, what should be done about all the trash that already exists? How can we not be wasteful of these opportunities for dialogue? What can we do to call greater attention to the 150,000,000 tons of plastic waste in our oceans?
Turning Trash into Treasure
Under the theme of “Liquid City”, this years Bruges Triennale invites artists to imagine the future of the changing metropolis. StudioKCA has taken this opportunity to create a massive sculpture made from five tons of ocean waste. The studio often uses discarded plastic as material for their large-scale sculptures, and have created prior installations using trash that was collected over just a few hours.
In Cape Town, social design group See Saw Do worked with the municipality to create an educational innovation station focused on ocean plastic. The station was launched in a local mall and provided fun and educational opportunities for both children and adults. The station featured colourful and inviting workshops on recycling, plastic waste, and even about how plastic can be used to create new objects such as lampshades and even chairs!
One man’s trash is another mans treasure after all. How can we take ownership of our own disasters and generate new opportunities for shared value?
