HAND 

The installation provides a visual and experientional statement about the engine of global consumption and extensive use of plastic and its impact on the environment. The HAND represents the human touch, our individual influence and contribution to plastic pollution due to continued consumerism and mindless use of often single use plastic. On the surface the project also exposes the common, everyday day  objects of plastic we use as a daily necessities. The HAND showcase the volume of plastic collected by 12 student over the 30 days period, as a small fraction of the global consumption of current  population of 7,968,000,000 people. The palm of the HAND project is purposely placed on the edge of the curb, symbolizing the last grip, barely holding to the edge of the curb, about to fall down. The arm is creating a tunnel enclosure, with gradually changing colors and opacity, representing the timeline of plastic waste production and consumption, with increasing density and feeling of suffocation, ending with a dark fingers, barely accessible, with no further escape. The journey through the HAND project leads to the apocalyptic end, exemplifying destructive future of the the world we live in and preparing for next generation.

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GENERAL INFO

Plastic pollution and rapidly increasing production of disposable plastic has become one of the biggest environmental issues. It is the most visible in developing countries, where garbage collection are often inefficient or don’t exist. Plastic is an extremely convenient material, and its overwhelming production has led to throw-away culture, with single-used plastic accounting for 40% of the plastic produced every year and often taking up 450 years to decompose. Only up to 9% of the plastic is recyclable since most of the plastic is not biodegradable. Today we produce twice as much plastic waste as two decades ago, with most of it ending up in the landfill, leaking into the environment with only 9% being successfully recycled. Global plastic production was at its peak at 2019 inducing 368 million tons. COVID and global shutdown suppressed the number in 2022, however plastic production is on the rise. There are 269,000 tons of plastic floating on the ocean's surface – that equals to 593,043,485 pounds of trash, almost six hundred million pounds! At current rate, plastic production is expected to increase by 2.5 times by 2050. Every year we add 8 milion tons of plastic to the ocean and as of 2022 every square mile of our ocean contains over 45,000 individual pieces of plastic. Sciensist estimate that by 2050 there willl be 937 milion to of plastic in the ocean. This is more plastic then a fish. 

 

Unless we change how we make and manage plastics, the problem of plastic pollution will keep on growing.

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