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Visualise a problem - solve a problem

As the scale of plastic pollution can seem incomprehensible and overwhelming, one artist sets out to help us visualise it, and inspire us all to make changes for the better.

Artist Zac Greening creates “artworks that ‘campaign' for the natural environment”. For his stunning '10 million' piece, he was inspired after reading about how ten million metric tonnes of plastic enters our oceans every year.

"I wanted to find a visual representation of what this amount of plastic might look like and so decided to represent just one of these ‘metric tonnes’ as a cube, which I hoped would act as a visual cue for what the overall amount might look like.”

 

The moving lights make people stop and stare, and hopefully ultimately inspire change. In fact Zac’s piece is so inspiring, the National Trust recently erected it at Dorset’s highest coastal point, Golden Cap, “to serve as an educational ‘beacon' for the issue of plastics polluting our oceans”.

Creating his piece from used plastic bottles, Zac has “always been staggered by what and how much we throw away, seemingly with no regard for where it has come from or where it ends up".

"Plastic is a truly revolutionary invention with amazing attributes. The plastic bottle is a good example of this and therefore it was an obvious choice of material to be used in my work.”

“I am always trying to make ‘rubbish' look sexy with the hope that people will have a greater appreciation of what it is that they are so casually throwing away.”

 

Zac’s artwork takes a seemingly overwhelming issue – the amount of plastics entering our seas - and creates something visual to help us understand it. Representing an unimaginable 10,000,000 tonnes by showing just one.

In the same way, we can make small steps or changes to solve this massive problem, through the choices we make – in what we do, what we buy and how we live. Or in Zac’s own words, inspired by his art work and the natural environment, “I try to consider what I consume.”

Just as each single littered bottle adds to the problem, so each small step or change adds to the solution. So if you’re inspired by Zac’s stunning artwork, pledge to make one change today, and together we can turn the tide on plastic for good. 

To see more of Zac’s work visit his website.

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