Giant Creatures Made Out of Plastic Pollution

Brut America

Giant sharks, whales, and turtles — oh my! This nonprofit art project is making giant sea creatures out of plastic pollution.  Special thanks to The Washed Ashore Project.

Transcript

00:00♪

00:28We invented this amazing thing that's, you know, durable and waterproof and, you know,

00:33lasts forever and, you know, it can save lives, it can do all these great things,

00:37but it never came with a warning label that it will last forever.

00:42♪

00:57The real issue is we're now even finding microplastics in plankton.

01:02That's the whole food chain.

01:03I didn't know about marine debris, I didn't understand what the issue was

01:06because I hadn't ever studied it or thought about it.

01:09One day I saw all these people picking up rocks and agates all near the shoreline

01:18and then over to my left I saw this long line of marine debris

01:23that was like a mosaic of colors up the line

01:26and I was really horrified.

01:28I thought, what if we make giant animals that they can't ignore

01:33and it'll pull people in and then we can teach them about this problem

01:36and maybe we can make a difference.

01:38♪

01:51I work with thousands and thousands of volunteers and school kids

01:55and everybody helps build these sculptures.

01:58We get garbage just all the time and we have a place where people just drop it off

02:02and then they go into bins and we hose and wash.

02:05We have a workshop where people could come in, just drop in at any time of day,

02:10walk into the workshop and sit down and put things on a wire

02:14or stitch things with wire onto a screen.

02:17The heads of the animals are my thing that I do.

02:20It's really important to get the personality

02:22and I want them looking right in your eyes

02:24so that they can connect with the viewer and wake them up and reach their heart.

02:28At least once a week we have someone who's in our exhibit hall who just starts crying

02:33and they're like, I have to change my ways.

02:36I need to stop using so much plastic.

02:38♪

02:44We've got to find the positive.

02:46We have to realize that, first of all, humans embedded plastic

02:50and humans are smart and we do have good hearts.

02:53Most of us do and we don't want to kill the oceans.

02:57We just need to keep protecting it.

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