The #strawpocalypse art installation is a call to action to change our plastic habits before it’s too late. The installation features a parting wave of 168,000 used straws.
Plastic pollution is a major problem in our world today. Pretty soon there will be more plastic than fish in the sea. #Strawpocalypse represents the threat that our oceans face from plastic pollution.
Straws may seem small, but they are one of the hardest pieces of plastic to recycle. A straw that is used for just minutes exists for 450 years. This may seem discouraging, but it’s actually really easy to turn down a straw. Just say, “no thanks”.
The #strawpocalypse installation shows how small daily actions add up to a massive impact. It may seem like just 1 straw at the time, but we are creating a plastic ocean.
The Story of #Strawpocalypse
Here’s how the project began. Julia from Zero Waste Saigon reached out to one of our favorite artists, Von Wong with the idea for the project. They started collecting used straws, and then Starbucks came on board and set up collection points in-store. Von Won, Stefan Suknjaja and Nick Moser came up with the project concept for the parting of the plastic sea idea. It conveys how saturated in plastics our oceans are.
The Making of the Installation
To build #strawpocalypse, a dedicated team of volunteers collected, washed and organized 168,000 straws.
the team used Blue, black and green straws for the waves, white for the foam, orange and yellow for the sand, and transparent straws for the points in between.
The straws were glued onto large panels of recovered plastic. Next up, the structure for the installation was built. For this, pieces of wood were built into wave ‘ribs’. Local 3D expert Fosha Zyong helped out with this. The panels of straws were then draped onto this structure. To bring the installation to life, LED lights lit up the ribs. This light looks so dramatically beautiful shining through the straw waves.
The creators hope that this installation will inspire people to start a conversation the next time they’re offered a straw.
Every action counts.
#strawpocalypse can be seen at the new Estella Place Mall in District 2, Saigon.
Source: Von Wong
