I was not able to do the trash collection on the scheduled date but that came with the advantage of reading my peer’s experience going to the beach. Due to a mix of factors ranging from cheap labor costs and overall culture, waste is either cleaned very regularly or is disposed of properly by the general public. As such, I did not find it so surprising that one of the main private beaches in Abu Dhabi was rather clean.
So on Friday, I sought out to collect trash from campus. I knew the campus was also similar to the beach in that it is cleaned very periodically and most trash is whisked away before it lasts in the public eye. If I were to find trash, it would be by sourcing it from students that are yet to take out their trash, and that is what I did. I reached out to group chats I am in seeking plastic waste from my peers and surprisingly everyone was able to offer plastic bottles. Some members of the community are still adamant about drinking from tap water so they consume water from ~1.5l water bottles bought from either the convenience store, library cafe, or dining hall.
I collected a bag full of empty water bottles on Saturday and I intend on finishing up the sculpture today.
that’s great!
I’m glad you were able to collect plastic from other students, now you can get a sense of how much of these bottles are discarded on campus every day maybe.