1.5 billion plastic bottles are made a day, most destined for land fill. Artist offers a working solution.
Author: Distil Ennui | Post Date: 13-09-2023The figures are staggering as global production shows no signs of abating. So finding a solution for a better end of life for these valuable resources in a circular & carbon neutral way is exciting, now with a 'proven in the field' proof of concept. So it is smiles all around rejoining the team at the Makers Place recycling studio in the Maldives I set up back in 2021 which has been in full operations since that time. The facility has enabled field testing of all the machines and processes which were all designed specifically to address the pollution created by the drinks industries (single use plastic & aluminium) affecting small island nations head on.
Shoel, Harun & Alexander looking excited for the 1st press cube that is to be sliced into translucent bathroom tiles.
Here you can see the first two plastic press-blocks created from recycled PET (right) & HDPE (left). These can either be CNC'd into their final form, but we chose to slice them into marble like tiles, thin enough for light to easily luminesce through. You can read more about Makers Place and how it is a non polluting facility that turns the regions waste into useable objects for the community as well as works of art to be sold back to the tourist sector. For me it seemed logical as the only circular way to get these imported materials from polluting this tiny island nations land mass any further, it is tourism after all that created 80% of this pollution locally in the first place.
Plastic wrapper & bottle manufacturing for the confectionary & drinks industry alone creates 232 Million cubic tonnes of carbon a year, and only 6% of these packaging products (at best) are ever recycled, this adds exponentially to the extreme weather patterns we are all witnessing today; and horrific pollution levels in our oceans. It takes just 1/20th of the energy to recycle packaging than it does to create virgin packaging.
Soon wars will be fought over access to clean water, and this great fate for humanity consumes my thoughts daily as we remap the ethics of water and its scarcity amid a warming planet with pollution levels and geo-political shifts making this conversation ever more pressing after the studios 40 years advocating for change. I discuss in an earlier journal entry how I always use my own personal Katadyn water filter when i travel which with my personal 'Life Can' I am no longer dependant on the need for water in plastic bottles, and can travel with a far reduced footprint left behind me.
Just by carrying a 'Life can' water bottle with you at all times rather than buying water in a plastic bottle (which is essentially tap water anyway) and reverse osmosis filtering your own water to remove the high levels of PFAS we find in global public water supplies. This would send a massive blow to these polluting companies and 'drunk at the wheel' politicians to signify a major shift in consumer power.
‘Enjoy’ Coke bomb molotov petrol bottle
weight +/- 1,280 grammes - h 20cms x w 6 cms
Art's Silent Roar - Provoking Climate Discussions Through Visual Expression. My role in society is to suggest small changes that we can all make and live with forsaking just a little convenience, perhaps if this voice is heard it could equate to big changes in the natural world. Something we should all be working towards as our joint responsibility.
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