Environmentalists in Indonesia keen to send a message about the world's worsening ocean plastics crisis have created a museum made entirely from plastic items, hoping to convince people to rethink their habits and to reject single-use bags and bottles.
The outdoor exhibition in the town of Gresik in East Java took three months to assemble and is made up of more than 10,000 plastic waste items - from bottles and bags to sachets and straws - all collected from polluted rivers and beaches.
The centrepiece is a statue called “Dewi Sri”, a goddess of prosperity widely worshipped by the Javanese. Her long skirt is made from single-use household plastic items.
“We want to send information to the people to stop the use of single-use plastic,” said the museum's founder Prigi Arisandi.
“These plastics are very difficult to recycle … Starting today, we should stop consuming single-use plastic because it will pollute our ocean, which is also our source of food.”
The plastics problem is particularly acute in Indonesia, an archipelago nation that ranks second only behind China for the volume of plastics polluting rivers and seas.
Together with the Philippines and Vietnam, the four countries are responsible for more than half of ocean plastics and Indonesian efforts to regulate the use of plastic packaging have had mixed results.
-
People walk through 'Terowongan 4444' or 4444 tunnel, made with plastic bottles collected from several rivers around the city over three years, at the museum built by Indonesia's environmental activist group Ecological Observation and Wetlands Conservation (Ecoton), in Gresik regency, near Surabaya in East Java province. All photos: Reuters -
A placard reads 'Brantas river polluted with microplastic' among plastic bags displayed at the plastic museum built by Indonesia's environmental activist group Ecoton. -
Ecoton volunteers built a mock-up of the Goddess Sri, the goddess of rice and prosperity for Javanese people, from plastic waste collected from several rivers around the city, at the plastic museum in Gresik regency near Surabaya. -
Volunteers examine the contents of microplastics found in a river water sample. at the laboratory owned by Indonesia's environmental activist group Ecoton. -
Microplastic contents are seen on a screen at the laboratorium owned by Indonesia's Ecoton environmental activist group in East Java province. -
People take selfies in '4444 tunnel' at Ecoton's plastic museum.
The exhibition has received more than 400 visitors since it opened early last month.
Ahmad Zainuri, a student, said it had opened his eyes to the scale of the problem.
“I will switch to a tote bag and when I buy a drink, I will use a tumbler,” he said.
The museum has become a popular location for selfies shared widely on social media, with visitors posing against a background of thousands of suspended water bottles.
“I will have to buy reusable things such as drinking bottles instead of buying plastic bottles,” said student Ayu Chandra Wulan. “Looking at how much waste there is here, I feel sad.”
