Ocean Waste Benjamin Farren + Deborah Hahn + Celynne Hebron Word + Image April 18, 2018
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Discovered in the mid-1980s, it’s full of plastics, chemical sludge, and other man-made debris trapped by currents. While higher concentrations of litter items can be found in this area, along with other debris such as derelict fishing nets, much of the debris is actually small pieces of floating plastic that are not immediately evident to the naked eye. Benjamin Farren + Deborah Hahn + Celynne Hebron Word + Image April 18, 2018
Paper Cups by Chris Jordan While statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, Jordan translates them into a more universal visual language that can be felt. Employing themes such as the near versus the far, and the one versus the many, Jordan raises questions about the roles and responsibilities we each play as individuals in a collective that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming. Benjamin Farren + Deborah Hahn + Celynne Hebron Word + Image April 18, 2018
“These are numbers that our brain just doesn’t have the ability to comprehend. We can’t make meaning out of these enormous statistics. If we can feel these issues, if we can feel these things more deeply, then they’ll matter to us more than they do now.” Chris Jordan Benjamin Farren + Deborah Hahn + Celynne Hebron Word + Image April 18, 2018
Midway: Message from the Gyre by Chris Jordan On Midway Atoll, a remote cluster of islands more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent, the detritus of our mass consumption surfaces in an astonishing place: inside the stomachs of thousands of dead baby albatrosses. The nesting chicks are fed lethal quantities of plastic by their parents, who mistake the floating trash for food as they forage over the vast polluted Pacific Ocean. Benjamin Farren + Deborah Hahn + Celynne Hebron Word + Image April 18, 2018
“Fish and seabirds mistake plastic for food. Plastic debris releases chemical additives and plasticizers into the ocean. Plastic also adsorbs hydrophobic pollutants like PCBs and pesticides like DDT. These pollutants bioaccumulate in the tissues of marine organisms, biomagnify up the food chain, and find their way into the foods we eat.” Thomas M. Kostigen Benjamin Farren + Deborah Hahn + Celynne Hebron Word + Image April 18, 2018
Sea Chair by Studio Swine The garbage in the ocean is not so much a patch, but a soup of tiny pieces floating in a collective. Studio Swine imagines collecting them and pressing them together like particle board and making new products. They built a sluice contraption to help sort these particles, much like miners would pan for gold. Benjamin Farren + Deborah Hahn + Celynne Hebron Word + Image April 18, 2018
Mining Landfills “In the UK alone, 2 billion tons of waste sit untouched in landfills. In the US, more than 4.6 million tons of electronic waste were disposed of in American landfills. Such material has potential to provide a new supply for declining supplies of metals such as the platinum group elements and rare earths , both of which are found frequently in electronic products.” Benjamin Farren + Deborah Hahn + Celynne Hebron Word + Image April 18, 2018
Making a Trashion Statement Designer Marina DeBris uses trash gathered from beaches in Los Angeles, California and Sydney, Australia as a tongue-in-cheek way of bringing awareness to the trash epidemic in our oceans. Benjamin Farren + Deborah Hahn + Celynne Hebron Word + Image April 18, 2018
Ecoalf Recycled Materials ● Starbucks coffee collectively serves 8,070,428 cups of coffee per day, enough for 403,521.4 Image Courtesy Ecoalf.com meters of Ecoalf fabric ● An average men’s jacket requires two meters of fabric ● Ecoalf could make 201,760.7 jackets PER DAY from Starbucks grinds alone Benjamin Farren + Deborah Hahn + Celynne Hebron Word + Image April 18, 2018
Not Just for Coffee Beans Through Ecoalf’s methods, fishing nets can be harvested from the ocean to create clothing instead of strangling marine life Photo courtesy Ecoalf.com
The Guardian: More Plastic than Fish in the Sea by 2050 Since 1964, the production of plastic has increased twenty-fold to 311m tonnes in 2014. It expected to quadruple by 2050. Plastic can be recycled; however, it is a small percentage compared to the overall amount that is thrown away and end up in a landfill or the ocean. Wastes end up in the ocean in several ways: littering, poor transportation of wastes, and industrial leakage. Benjamin Farren + Deborah Hahn + Celynne Hebron Word + Image April 18, 2018
“Despite the growing demand, just 5% of plastics are recycled effectively, while 40% end up in landfill and a third in fragile ecosystems such as the world’s oceans.” Benjamin Farren + Deborah Hahn + Celynne Hebron Word + Image April 18, 2018
The Circular Economy The Ellen MacArthur foundation is a charity aiming to accelerate the transition of our present-day economy to a circular economy. A circular economy is a concept for a truly sustainable waste system that works without trashing our environment and resources. Damaged and unwanted goods are not seen as wastes, but as raw materials for a new production cycle. This foundation is significant because it provides interdisciplinary courses to taking the first steps of creating less waste for environments like the ocean. Benjamin Farren + Deborah Hahn + Celynne Hebron Word + Image April 18, 2018
“Plastics in the ocean are a clear sign of a broken system, as this was never intended to happen. That is why rethinking the way we make and use plastics is so crucial: how can we capture the material’s benefits, retain its value and make sure it does not end up where it does not belong?” Benjamin Farren + Deborah Hahn + Celynne Hebron Word + Image April 18, 2018
Ghost Net Art by the Pormpuraaw Community “Thrown overboard by fishers, they are known as “ghost nets”, eerie death traps that float through the currents, entrapping and killing marine life.” Most trash and ghost nets end up at the Bunnings, a specific location near the shore of Pormpuraaw, Queensland. Due to the large amount of plastic covering the beach and the sea life decreasing, the Pormpuraaw community collects these wastes to create art so that they can raise awareness of ocean waste, share their traditions, and help their community financially. Benjamin Farren + Deborah Hahn + Celynne Hebron Word + Image April 18, 2018
Each art piece is believed as a totem, an emblem connecting the artists and the community to their past ancestors. As they try to connect their art to their traditions, at the same time, the Pormpuraaw community raises awareness of the diminishing sea life affected by the ghost nets and ocean waste. Benjamin Farren + Deborah Hahn + Celynne Hebron Word + Image April 18, 2018
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