Artwork campaign aims to raise awareness of marine plastic pollution
An artwork creation campaign on plastic waste and polystyrenes is taking place in Minh Chau commune of Van Don district, northeastern Quang Ninh province, with a view to helping raise public awareness of marine pollution.
Volunteers collect waste and polystyrenes on an island in Ha Long Bay (Photo: VNA)
Quang Ninh (VNA) – An artwork creation campaign onplastic waste and polystyrenes is taking place in Minh Chau commune of Van Dondistrict, northeastern Quang Ninh province, with a view to helping raise publicawareness of marine pollution.
Themed “I love the ocean/Born to be wild”, the campaign isorganised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Bai TuLong National Park, and the Centre for Supporting Green Development (GreenHub) fromMay 29 to June 9.
Completed artworks will be displayed on local beaches or thecommunity centre of Bai Tu Long National Park.
Phan Thanh Nghi, Deputy Director of the Bai Tu Long NationalPark, said the campaign aims to raise local community’s awareness of theserious plastic pollution in the sea through arts, thereby helping to changetheir behaviours in using plastics and polystyrenes, which is popular at localaquaculture farms.
Le Thi Doan Vi and Le Thi Thuc Vi, two volunteers from Ho ChiMinh City, created a chair from plastic waste. They said all of the materialswere found on Minh Chau beach, and they wanted to make use of polystyrenes fromold lifebuoys and tyres. They hoped that other people would recycle wasteinstead of discarding them in the ocean.
Meanwhile, Nguyen Thi Trang, a postgraduate student at theUniversity of Industrial Fine Art in Hanoi, said she created three artworksfrom plastic waste. Notably, a sea turtle was made from polystyrenes collectedon Minh Chau beach so as to call on people to protect this threatened species.
The artwork campaign is part of the 2018community-based marine turtle conservation programme, implemented by the IUCNwith support from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, in response to the VietnamSea and Island Week (June 1 – 8), the World Environment Day (June 5), and theWorld Oceans Day (June 8).
According to the IUCN and partners, in the three clean-upcampaigns in the vicinity of Ha Long Bay from 2016 to 2017, polystyrenes onislands in Bai Tu Long accounted for 60 – 80 percent of total collected waste.Polystyrenes is dangerous for the environment when they are broken into smalland uncollectible pieces, marine species may eat these pieces and die.
Statistics show that one million plastic bottles are boughtand 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide every minute. Meanwhile, up to8 million tonnes of plastic waste is discharged into oceans around the globeeach year, harming coral reef ecosystems and marine species.-VNA
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Volunteers collect waste and polystyrenes on an island in Ha Long Bay (Photo: VNA) 
