Learn about the global plastic pollution crisis through more than 70 powerful photographs and videos in an exhibition by National Geographic.
12 September 2020 – 28 March 2021 | Sunday – Thursday: 10 am – 7 pm | Friday – Saturday: 10 am – 9 pm | $12 – $19
From the Arctic to the Antarctic, plastic waste is everywhere. Planet or Plastic?, ArtScience Museum’s first exhibition to launch since re-opening after Singapore’s circuit-breaker, shines a spotlight on the fragility of the natural environment as a result of the global plastic waste crisis. The exhibition endeavors to raise awareness of society’s dependence on plastic by visually depicting the crisis and highlighting the innovative individuals and communities who are working on solutions to this urgent problem.
Featuring the work of researchers, scientists, and artists, the exhibition traces the history of plastic from its invention in the mid-1800s to the present day where seemingly everything is made of plastic. Planet or Plastic? explores the plastic pollution of our world’s oceans and uncovers how untold numbers of marine animals die each year from ingesting microplastics. The exhibition uses photographs as a means of making this urgent issue strikingly real.
Planet or Plastic? provides practical steps we can take to responsibly reduce, reuse, recycle, and refuse single-use plastic products.
Section 1: Plastics – A Modern Marvel
The invention of plastic changed the world. The first plastics were created 150 years ago and few inventions have had such a profound impact on the entire world. From the mid-1800s and a competition to find a cheaper, more readily available substitute for ivory, to the early 20th century where suddenly, anything and everything could be made of plastic – and was. Plastic is a modern marvel, it made space travel possible, modern medicine relies on it, it is an essential way clean water is delivered to communities in need, it keeps first responders safe, just to name a few of its crucial roles. The exhibition begins with this history of invention and innovation.
Plastics In Peacetime
After the war ended, plastic manufacturers had to come up with new ways to sell their products. They adapted materials used on the front lines to suit life at home. After years of making do with what they had, Americans embraced the advent of disposable products. In a 1955 LIFE magazine article entitled “Throwaway Living,” an American family celebrates the dawn of single-use products that cut down on household chores.
PHOTOGRAPH BY PETER STACKPOLE/ LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES, 1955
Delivering Clean Water
In many areas of the world, clean water for washing, cooking, and drinking is not readily available. Since plastic containers are lightweight and tough, they are an excellent way to transport water long distances. Even though bottled water has gotten a bad reputation, when disaster strikes, plastic bottles are also the fastest way to get water to people who need it. Here, residents of a parched slum in Delhi, India, swarm a tanker to siphon water into plastic containers.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JONAS BENDIKSEN, 2009
Section 2: The Darker Side of Plastics
How much is too much of a good thing? This section contrasts how plastics have evolved from a vital tool of industry in the 1940s to today’s version, a light, cheap, mouldable and sanitary ‘miracle’ material. In this section National Geographic photographers expose the ways in which our natural flora and fauna are, in some cases literally, drowning in plastic pollution. When plastic reaches the oceans of the world, its benefits to humans – its light weight and durability – become harmful to animal species. Animals of all sizes, from zooplankton to whales ingest microplastics with dire consequences. A shining light in the dark is the various community initiatives profiled in this section, providing an income to individuals and industrious inspiration for change.
Ghost Fishing
A loggerhead turtle is ensnared in an old plastic fishing net in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain. The turtle could stretch its neck above water to breathe, but it would have died if the photographer had not freed it. Ghost fishing by derelict or abandoned fishing gear is a big threat to sea turtles and other marine animals.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JORDI CHIAS, 2009
Hitching a Ride
To ride ocean currents, seahorses clutch drifting seagrass or other natural debris with their tails. The debris acts as a sail, whisking the tiny seahorse along with the current. In the polluted waters off the Indonesian island of Sumbawa, this seahorse latched onto a plastic cotton swab instead—“a photo I wish didn’t exist,” says photographer Justin Hofman.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JUSTIN HOFMAN, 2016
Section 3: The Haunting Art of Plastic Pollution
Did you know that over 8 billion kilos of plastic end up in the ocean each year? This is roughly equivalent to one million garbage trucks dumping their full loads straight into the ocean. This is difficult to visualize and this is where photographers, artists and activists are an essential part of the conversation. In this section, we profile images that speak to the scale of the problem. These photographs are at once alluring and repulsive. When photographer and National Geographic Explorer Mandy Barker began taking photographs of the plastic waste she collected on various coastlines, Barker said she “wanted to create something that would resonate”. Barker’s images draw you in and then they immediately shift your perspective.
Bird’s Nest
In this image photographer Mandy Baker captures a discarded fishing line that has formed nest-like balls due to tidal movements of the ocean. In time these nests collect other debris in their path. Some of the nests also resemble jellyfish or other marine creatures.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MANDY BARKER, 2018
Trick Or Treat?
If you licked one of these “treats,” you’d encounter cigarette butts, oil, oozing trash, and a whole lot of plastic and other unsavory pollutants. Three art students collected water from a hundred sites around Taiwan and then froze it into blocks. The artists—Hong Yi-Chen, Guo Yi-hui, and Zheng Yu-ti—hope to draw public attention to water contamination and inspire people to generate less waste through their frozen creations.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ZHENG YU-TI, 2018
Section 4: Steps Toward a Cleaner Future
In this section we explore a number of successful citizen-led campaigns around the world that are making a huge difference to the global plastic waste crisis. While some of these efforts include recycling and redesign, other innovators are also discovering new ways to recycle or create less waste. Excitingly, cutting-edge science and technology are also providing new solutions to the plastic crisis. In this section, we meet some of National Geographic’s explorers, fellows, and grantees who are addressing the problem of plastic waste, and we find out how they believe we can clean up our oceans and keep them that way.
Low-Tech Recycling
Not all recycling is done by electronic sorting machines. In the developing world, this is what the process looks like. Toplun Plastic Corporation in Valenzuela City, located on the outskirts of Manila, Philippines, imports plastic scrap and PET bottles and turns them into plastic pellets—the feedstock for making new plastic products out of recycled plastic. Even bottle caps are recycled here, but the exhausting effort needed to sort through the plastic is only possible through low-cost labour.
PHOTOGRAPH BY RANDY OLSON/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, 2017
Recycle
Currently about one-fifth of all plastic waste is recycled, but in the United States, the proportion is lower—only about 10 percent. Recology’s largest recycling plant in San Francisco, California, handles 500 to 600 tonnes of waste daily. One of the few plants in the U.S. that accepts shopping bags, it has more than doubled the tonnage it recycles in the past 20 years. The conveyor belt is carrying mixed plastic to an optical sorter.
PHOTOGRAPH BY RANDY OLSON/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, 2018
Section 5: Science in Action
Scientists, engineers and innovators are looking for ways to bolster community action and inspire government policy change. They are engineering new materials that break down faster after they are discarded, finding new uses for the plastics we already have, and developing more effective strategies for capturing waste that escapes the disposal stream. Their research is also illuminating the scope of the plastics problem. In this section are profiles of some of National Geographic’s explorers, fellows, and grantees who are addressing the problem of plastic waste. Explore how they are developing ways to clean up our oceans and keep them that way.
Artwork Images
Biologist Heather Koldeway is a 2018 National Geographic Fellow. She co-founded Project Seahorse in 1996 and is recognised as the world’s leading authority on seahorses.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF HEATHER KOLDEWEY
Section 6: Choosing Planet Over Plastic
Did you know there are six simple things you can do every day to reduce your plastic use at home and work? In this section we look at how, when faced with dozens of decisions every day, we can make a positive change and a real and lasting impact. Take the National Geographic pledge and determine what strategies each of us can put in place. Citizen–led campaigns have resulted in the increasingly wide-spread use of reusable metal straws and the return of glass over plastic bottles. Public interest is the catalyst that will continue to drive resources toward waste management practices. Do your part, choose planet over plastic.
Choose the Planet
Photo illustration by Jorge Gamboa/National Geographic, 2017
Educational Interactive Space
The educational Interactive Space in the exhibition focuses on how COVID-19 has increased our usage of single-use plastic, especially through the usage of disposable face masks. It asks the question, “Have you ever wondered what happens to your disposable mask when you’re done with it?” Masks help us stay safe and protect our community but that doesn’t mean we should let them harm the environment.
Find your own path on a trail in the Interactive Space that includes interactive challenges that reveal the damaging consequences of our increased use of disposable plastic. The path winds toward a powerful reflective conclusion, a mirror in which you are faced with yourself and your choices. What happens to your single-use plastic after you’ve used it? What choices can you make to be a better friend of the environment?
The Interactive Space uses ArtScience Museum’s ‘feet-first’ approach to tactile interaction within the gallery, inviting visitors to activate interaction stations with their feet, instead of their hands.
