A current art exhibition in Hamburg's Museum of Arts and Crafts highlights the problems for marine life caused by human-caused waste. Plastic bags and bottles definitely facilitate our everyday life enormously. But, they are also an ecological disaster. Plastic is a material made for eternity, and more and more of it ends up in the sea.
Eight tons of plastic are produced every second worldwide. More than six million tons of plastic waste ends up in the sea every year. Scientists report that gigantic garbage patches are now circulating in the certain parts of the world's oceans, trapped by the currents.
If you've gone on a beach holiday recently, you've probably noticed a lot of junk washed up onto the sand. But this waste is only the tip of the iceberg. Most of the plastic sinks to the sea floor. Only 15 percent floats and reach the beaches. The most frequent plastic visitors arriving at the beaches are PET bottles and plastic bags.
Floating plastic waste poses a fatal threat for sea dwellers. Fish get trapped in plastic bags and perish. Birds eat the waste and die. This video at the exhibition shows how and why many animals think plastic is food. Here, a jellyfish gets entangled in a plastic bag.
The enormous use of plastic is beginning to affect human health as well. Plastic is generally not biodegradable, it just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces. In the end, the so-called pellets remain as shown on this picture. Via the food chain these harmful and toxic substances eventually end up in our food too.
These pictures show the plastic waste in the stomach of dead albatrosses. One plastic bag in the world's oceans can have terrible effects. A bird or a sea dweller will often mistake it for food and eat it. The plastic then blocks the animal's stomach and often means certain death by starvation.
Not only plastic waste in the ocean threatens our planet's ecosystems. Climate change is also a big concern. The art illustrator Alexandra Klobouk has combined two terrifying visions. In her drawings, the Netherlands disappear under rising seas but her hero rescues himself on a gigantic carpet of plastic waste. Here, he builds himself "New Holland".
Have you ever heard of phthalates? Or what about bisphenol? These chemicals are used in plastic manufacturing. The Hamburg exhibition explains the threats behind these substances. Moreover, exhibits like textiles, toys and plastic bags inform which synthetics are especially harmful to the environment.
It takes 450 years for a diaper to biodegrade in the world's oceans. And, it can create a lot of damage in the meantime. The aim of the exhibition in Hamburg is to show how plastic waste can disrupt the earth's natural balance. It's also a demonstration of how, when waste turns to art, it suddenly starts to look especially threatening.
8000 kilograms of plastic are produced worldwide every second. Every year more than 6.4 million tons of waste end up in the ocean. An exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Hamburg shows the consequences.
8000 kilograms of plastic are produced worldwide every second. Every year more than 6.4 million tons of waste end up in the ocean. An exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Hamburg shows the consequences.
