Help keep One Green Planet free and independent! Together we can ensure our platform remains a hub for empowering ideas committed to fighting for a sustainable, healthy, and compassionate world. Please support us in keeping our mission strong.

This artist just had his incredible eco-art piece, Turn Off The Plastic Tap, on display for the UN Ocean Conference in Portugal.

Source: VonWong/Youtube

Benjamin Von Wong created a three-story tall giant art installation of a faucet pouring out thousands of pieces of plastic. The UN posted a picture on Facebook of the installation at the UN Ocean Conference in Portugal, saying,

“Every year, humans produce 300 million tonnes of plastic waste, including 11 million tonnes that eventually wind up in the ocean. By 2050, there could be more plastic than fish in our seas.”

Von Wong is an artist and activist who has created many campaigns to bring awareness to plastic Pollution, including 168,000 plastic straws, 18,000 plastic cups, and 10,000 plastic bottles.

However, the artist realized that his past project only raised awareness for individual objects and never the root cause of the problem: plastic pollution. That’s when Von Wong got to pair up with the Embassy of Canada in France to create the art installation.

The entire installation was made from reused materials. The faucet was built from used ventilation ducts from a building that was about to be demolished. With the help of his father, they used a rope to hold together each piece of plastic pouring out of the faucet.

They brought the installation to different locations to amazing photos for the campaign. According to Von Wong, it took them five hours to get up the faucet and two hours to capture the perfect shot.

In the end, hundreds of volunteers contributed thousands of hours to the project.

Globally, we produce 300 million tons of plastic every year, 78 percent of which is NOT reclaimed or recycled. Around  8.8 million tons of plastic get dumped into the oceans every year! 700 marine animals are faced with extinction due to the threat that plastic poses to them in the form of entanglement, Pollution, and ingestion. 50 percent of sea turtles have plastic in their stomachs. By 2050, 99 percent of all seabird species will have ingested plastic waste. According to a study by the World Economic Forum, there will be one tonne of plastic for every three tonnes of fish by 2025, and if things go on business as usual, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050.

Read more about how companies like Facebook, Tupperware, Google, Dove,  Budweiser, Carlsberg, and FIJI Water are working towards reducing plastic Pollution. Places around the world like Tel Aviv, California, Baltimore, Scotland, and many more are banning various single-use plastics, and others are coming up with creative ways to recycle and use plastic waste.

There are products you may be using or habits you may have that contribute to plastic Pollution. Learn more about how the use of Teabags, Cotton Swabs, Laundry, Contact Lenses, Glitter, and Sheet Masks pollute our oceans so you can make more informed decisions going forward. There are also numerous simple actions and switches that can help cut plastic out of our lives including, making your own cosmetics, shampoo, toothpaste, soap, household cleaners, using  mason jars, reusable bags/bottles/straws, and avoiding microbeads!​

Being publicly-funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing you with high-quality content.Click here to Support Us

Related Content:

For more Animal, Earth, Life, Vegan Food, Health, and Recipe content published daily, subscribe to the One Green Planet Newsletter! Also, don’t forget to download the Food Monster App on the App Store. With over 15,000 delicious recipes, it is the largest meatless, vegan, and allergy-friendly recipe resource to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals and get healthy!

Lastly, being publicly-funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing you with high-quality content. Please consider supporting us by donating!