Museum Dedicated to Plastic Opens in NYC Highlighting Environmental Impact

Shiwen Rong
By Shiwen Rong
June 11, 2019New York
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NEW YORK—Single-use plastics are a big part of everyday life, and more people are now aware of their environmental impact.

A week-long pop-up museum dedicated to plastic opened its doors in Soho, New York on World Ocean Day.

The Museum of Plastic highlights the environmental impact of plastics and what life could look like if we were to change our ways.

annual plastic use at museum of plastic
Film-projection of annual single-use plastic water bottles shows at the Museum of Plastic in SoHo, New York on June 8. (NTD)

“We use five hundred billion [single use plastic bottles] every single year,” said Dune Ives.

Ives is the Executive Director of Lonely Whale, a non-profit group who launched a new campaign against single used plastic water bottles last week, following their “Stop Sucking” campaign raising awareness about plastic straws.

“Over one hundred thousand marine animals [are] dying every year because of plastic ingestion or entanglement,” she added.

The museum shows artwork that expose the money behind the bottled water industry.

Video projection of polluted ocean at museum of plastic
Video-projection of the polluted ocean at the Museum of Plastic in SoHo, New York on June 8. (NTD)

The museum shows an interactive screen depicting how the ocean would look in 30 years if we don’t change our ways. It also shows plastic alternatives and what the ocean could look like when it’s plastic-free.

“I hope people can see this art and be impacted in a way that will make them question the way that they hydrate, and decide hopefully to move towards using alternative solutions other than single-use bottles,” Max Nova, director of Optical Animal and the designer behind the interactive screen said.

A free bottle of hydration is available on the way out and a photo booth at the end of the museum, where you can make a pledge to go plastic-free.

The exhibit is open until June 12.

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