Artist r1. is helping to create awareness of the massive
problem of plastic bottles - and the resulting environmental pollution on both land
and in
the sea - with an environmental art project that has transformed over 7,000
plastic bottles into a 20-meter-tall permanent art sculpture called the iThemba
Tower. Reaching towards the sky in Troyeville Johannesburg, it symbolizes
both hope and inspiration.
Talking about this latest artwork, r1 told us, “To me the
re-appropriation of my chosen material and locations goes through a cycle of
transformation before I execute it. It is a natural tendency for me to re-use
found objects for art installations. To me, it is important to stay true to my
craft and maintain personal creative expression. But with this craft also comes
a responsibility. Ultimately, the artwork belongs to the street and the people
that live in it. The recycling of materials becomes more appropriate in the
current time we live in.”
A redundant communications tower was used as the base of the
iThemba Tower, which derives its name from the Zulu word meaning trust or hope.
The local community was involved in all aspects of the design process, from
plastic bottle collection through to construction. Locals were also invited to fill each bottle with a 'message of hope,' thus creating a symbolic
communications tower that 'broadcasts' the community’s diverse hopes and
dreams.
“It is estimated that in South Africa alone, nearly over 250,000 plastic bottles are dumped into our environment every hour,” says the narrator in the video below about the iThemba Tower. “One plastic bottle will take up to 700 years to completely break down in a landfill. The iThemba Tower project raised awareness the importance of recycling through workshops and various community activities.” LEDs were also inserted inside the bottles to turn them into “lights of hope.” The lights bring the tower alive at night and create a magical twinkling effect. The iThemba Tower is a permanent art piece at the Spaza Art Garden, a safe haven for creatives in Johannesburg.
“It is estimated that in South Africa alone, nearly over 250,000 plastic bottles are dumped into our environment every hour,” says the narrator in the video below about the iThemba Tower. “One plastic bottle will take up to 700 years to completely break down in a landfill. The iThemba Tower project raised awareness the importance of recycling through workshops and various community activities.” LEDs were also inserted inside the bottles to turn them into “lights of hope.” The lights bring the tower alive at night and create a magical twinkling effect. The iThemba Tower is a permanent art piece at the Spaza Art Garden, a safe haven for creatives in Johannesburg.
A symbol of a major problem
With a million bottles a minute being produced, the world’s plastic
bottle consumption has been called ‘as
dangerous as climate change.’ The statistics are astounding: More than
480bn plastic drinking bottles were sold in 2016 across the world, up from
about 300bn a decade ago. If placed end to end, they would extend more than
halfway to the sun. By 2021 this will increase to 583.3bn, according to Euromonitor
International’s global
packaging trends report, far more than the global recycling
infrastructure will be able to cope with.
Beyond the issue if the recycling infrastructure is the one
of collection. Fewer than half of the bottles bought in 2016 were collected for
recycling and just 7% of those collected were turned into new bottles. Most ended
up in landfill or in the ocean, contributing to the 5m to 13m tons of plastic that
leaks into the world’s oceans each year to be ingested by sea birds, fish and
other organisms, leading to the horrifying statistic from research conducted by
the Ellen MacArthur
Foundation that by 2050 the ocean will contain more plastic by weight than
fish.
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