an exhibition, opened at hamburg, looking for alerting people to the threats of the plastic in our daily lives. this exhibition has painted a stark picture of how plastic accumulates in the world&39s oceans and affects its ecological system. this exhibition also reveals how plastic particles can come into the food chain and come back to us through our dinner plates. the hideous mess is a must see for everyone who wants to have bad ethics for the correct reason during the celebration of consumerism that is christmas. 3.2 feet high mountain of plastic scrap, which was collected from the sea, is piled up in the centre of the exhibition space. a red colour plastic boat surfs on the peak of the pile. underneath chairs, car tires, rubber ducks with holes and bleached flipflops are clumped together &ndash these are the things which an increasing number of people are tossing away at an everquicker pace. it&39s a graveyard of mass consumption. the pile of floating debris comes from the coastlines of the hawaiian island of kahoolawe, north sea island of sylt, and the germany&39s baltic sea island of fehmarn. the trash pile is on display as a part of an exhibition entitled "out to sea the plastic garbage project". this exhibition is going on at hamburg&39s museum for arts and crafts mkg. it intensely illustrates one of the worst threats of plastic production. every 10 to 15 seconds, a quantity equal to that gathered in the garbage mountain at the museum finds its way out to the sea generally because it has been toss away irresponsibly. as 64million tons of trash reaches the oceans each year, it is gradually turning into one huge batch of plastic soup. today, already there is not a single cubic meter of sea water, which is free of plastic particles. whole gyres have formed in our oceans in which an overabundance of plastic debris is continuously being washed around in a pattern, ensnared by the currents. great pacific garbage patch, which is the biggest waterbased plastic trash heap, is predictable to be about the same size as central europe. there, whirlpools 30 meters deep that are nearly 100 feet mix with a massive amount of plastic sludge generating from the pacific rim countries. there is no doubt that plastic has many advantages as a material. it is light, inexpensive, pliable and variable. on the other hand, most plastic also has one critical disadvantage it doesn&39t decay into biodegradable material. instead of it, it shrinks down through light and friction into ever smaller pieces. this plastic particle water pollution, obliquely called "mermaid tears," arrives in some portion of the ocean in ample sometimes even more than plankton. some marine creatures mistake the particles for food. it directly put them into the food chain and probably back on our plates. for example, mussels can stock up polyethylene particles in their tissues. the exhibition first began at the zurich design museum zhdk in switzerland. encouraged by an article on the pacific trash vortex published in the neue zürcher zeitung newspaper, curators there wanted to raise awareness of this topic and convert it into a learning experience. it certainly makes sense for a museum that is focused on the form to consider products not only through the perspective of good design, but also the method in which they are disposed of or how they influence the environment. after a halt in hamburg, it will carry on to museums in finland, denmark as well as france. half of the show explains aspects of ocean ecology. video clips and information boards make the concepts clear and easily understandable. exhibition visitors can see how marine creatures mistake our civilization&39s waste for their food with some bottles that have teeth marks from sea turtles and sharks. haunting photos demonstrate that sea birds like albatrosses gulp up plastic pieces that harm their insides. these plastic pieces even cause sea birds to starve to death as the plastic particles fill their stomachs. the second half of the exhibit addresses the issues regarding usage of plastic in daily life. the lunacy of takeout food packaging is shown with the help of plastic salad boxes which have dressing in different containers, and fork and egg wrapped in film. what is less noticeable is how plastic rotates through bathrooms and washing machines. for example, in every wash, fleece clothing can leave behind about 1,900 plastic fibres. various cosmetic peeling creams also contain polyethylene balls. similar to fleece fibres, they are also so small that they end up passing from filters, arriving in rivers and eventually pouring into our oceans. for the experts in this field, the exhibition does not have anything new to offer. however, taken together with the associated program of films, tours, and debates of sewage treatment and recycling plants, it makes the concept of the plastic garbage mountain easily understandable in a non rigid way for laypeople as well as school children. in zürich, around 400 school groups visited this exhibit. for many visitors, it is the first opportunity they have explored so deeply into the issue. who knows some may become sea researchers or environmental activists. at the very least, many exhibition visitors will at least be more tending to pay keen attention to their consumption habits. if we consider the lazy visitors, they can at least make environmental small chat at parties when others carelessly tap their plastic forks against plastic cups. one might ask, for example, " did you know that bunch of plastic that has been produced until today is adequate to wrap the entire earth in plastic wrap for up to six times over" source of information httpwww.spiegel.deinternationalzeitgeistexhibitionshowshowplasticischokingt…
