270 Single Uses

270 Single Uses, 2017, is a site-specific installation of 270 ice casts of plastic bottles. Staged at Granary Square Fountains in Kings Cross, London on 23rd May 2017.

Inspired by the World Economic Forum report on circular economy that talks about single use packaging and a computer program that predicts the distribution of plastic through the ocean environment. Designed by scientists at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London, the computer program shows that most of the marine plastic litter from Britain ends up in the Arctic, and takes less than two years to get there. Plastic has been accumulating in the sea ice for decades but is now being re-released back into the ocean as the polar region warms and annual sea ice declines.

Director, Camera, Edit: Hannah Scott
Thanks: MA Art and Science; Central Saint Martins; Waitrose Kings Cross; Kings Cross Estates; Dr Eric van Sebille; Dr Stephanie Wright; Maria Macc; Caroline Fawcett; Jo Homan.
Photographs courtesy of John Sturrock, Olga Suchanova and Sandra Terlevic.
Related work: Single Use