Idea

Our art installation aims to remind people that the trash we throw away is not away– “There is no away” according to the idea of “Bag It” documentary. The trash that seems to be disposed of go to stream, ocean, land or even sky.  The idea of making a raining-trash cloud comes from the plastic pieces in the sky. That trash that we dispose of, especially plastic have incredible durability that in hundreds of year could they be totally disposed of. It definitely ruins our environment and sacrifices carrying capacity of the future. We want to encourage people to pay attention to the trash they throw away in daily life so as to help them form the sense of trash in life.

Making process:

We mainly use the materials of bubble wrap, plastic bottles, the one-used plastic package for food, wrap for delivery, white foam board, wine glasses bottle and plastic bags. For the cloud part, which I am mainly responsible for, we use a huge cloth bag and many pieces of white foam board to make the body of cloud. Then, we use many bubble wrap to shape the cloud. For the rain, we cut plastic bags into pieces of rope as the tool to tie the plastic bottles and connect them to the cloud. It is really interesting that at first, we decided to make several small holes in the cloud so as to tie the plastic ropes to the cloud, but we found out that it is okay but it might fall down. So we decided to use the tap.

For land and water on the ground, we use different color elements: blue and green. We use all the green trash to represent the ground and all the blue trash to represent the water. We cover all the trash on cardboard so as to make it more stable. For stabilization, we use a glue which was found in the trash by accident.

For the show position, we decide to choose 2f cafe because we think that it is the best place because we can hang our cloud on the top or just on the stairs. But eventually, we just put on a high chair beside the garbage bin.

Reflection:

Generally, I am pretty satisfied with our installation because we make it “artistic” instead of just the combination of many trash pieces. Then we have a really good idea and aim. But I think we can do it matter on some perspectives. Firstly, we didn’t use all the trash we collect in the last two weeks. That is not good to some extent because we throw them away again. Secondly, we use other materials besides what we collect: glues and tapes. For the showing position, it will be much better if we can hang our cloud on the top of the cafe.

 

Reading Response:

-Collective Responsibilities

In this reading, the key concept that I learn about is that the recycling industry in Shanghai is mainly divided into two parts: the formal sector(government) and informal sector(private trash collectors). In the formal sector, trash mostly go landfill and incinerated. Informal sector consists of much private trash collectors. They go across buildings and street to collect trash and sell them to swapping point or larger-scale recycling center. But those people are ununified and in independent working mode. They are “informal”. The future of the recycling industry in Shanghai should be that government incorporate the informal collectors and formalized them into a rounded industry. There are many business opportunities to unify those individual workers so that to form a formal system. Besides, the government should invest more in the building of incinerators and recycling facilities so as to enhance the ability of trash treatment. 

-Sustainability

The most valuable information but not the latest is that the idea of sustainability doesn’t contradict to business. The concept of “sustainability” is not to meet the needs currently without sacrificing the ability to meets the needs of the future. For business, in common sense, it will definitely go against the sustainabilities, which is wrong. But the thing is that we need to come up with sustainable practices.

 

Trash Map:

In our group, we divide the work into two parts: research and visualization. I choose the visualization part. For research, our group members reached An Ayi who collects trash from classrooms and got the conclusion that all the trash sorted will go to B2, which is the parking garage for our school. Then, our group went to B2 to research more. 

The parking garage is organized neatly, which is totally different from my imagination. The garbage bins are in different color: red, green, blue and black. The categories are Kitchen waste(come from cafeteria and cafe as I guess), Harmful waste, recyclable waste and residual waste(from all the garbage bins in AB) and other waste(I am not sure which kind of waste should belong to this category actually).

The trash truck will come to AB every day from 1 pm to 3 pm, except Sunday.

According to the work of research, I got the idea of drawing an AB and highlight the important floors like B1 and B2. Maya drew our map based on my idea and we finally got:

As we can see, we divide AB into 3-15f and floors below 3f. We highlight the b1 and b2 and the trash truck. The text and icon on the right part are the categories of trash sorting.

 

The concepts of sustainability, as the title name says， systematically introduces the what sustainability is to me. It is easy to understand that sustainability or sustainable development should meet the needs of the current generation without sacrificing the ability and needs of the future generation. Another interesting thing that I take away is the 3E, which is “Environment, Economy, and Equity”. Compared to 3R, 3E theoretically explain how to be sustainable: We should simultaneously protect the environment, preserve economic growth and promoting equity. 

Accumulation: The Material Politics of Plastic mainly discover the birth of PET and the recycling of PET material. By reading this section, I learn how PET flooded into the market. At first, the beverages industry seek a material to take place of glass, and PET could be that role. PET as a bottle, package for food, is cheap to produce and almost weightless. What worths thinking is that “package is designed to be thrown away”. Starting from the original intention, PET is not the most suitable material because it is hard to be recycled. PET had a fast-speed development, causing that people could not realize its effects until its proliferation.

Interestingly, after reading these two articles, I realize that using PET material totally deviates from the path of sustainability. Firstly, using PET will leave bunches of environmental issues for the future generation; Besides, the carrying capacity of our planet will decrease gradually with the use of PET. In the long term, plastic pollution has a big possibility of destroying our ecosystem even if the advance of technology and science can power carrying capacity of the planet. We should not take any risk.

According to the talk on previous Wednesday, to recycle is the collective responsibility around the globe. But from the first reading, it is shocking to know that even in the most developed country–the U.S, the concept of sustainability is ambiguous and has not taken firmly. Sustainability is not just the work of China or Vietnam, but the work of the whole planet; it is not a current work or the work can be solved in once, it is a permanent topic across the history and last till the end of the human history. We should keep moving on in the path of sustainability.

Response to “Bag It”:

Before watching this documentary, I just have a rough image of sustainability. One thing the documentary noticed is the ban on plastic bag around the world. I experience the ban on the plastic bag in China in 2008 but it didn’t last long. What the Chinese government eventually did is to place a fee on plastic bag everywhere–you need it and you have to pay for it. But in my opinion,  this is not the best solution for plastic management. We consume a crazy number amount of plastic product per hour/ year per person according to the data shown in the documentary, which cause incredible pollution. We use plastic bags for the convenience of several hours at the expense of the environment for hundreds of years. The management of plastic material is a really big issue.

The interesting points that I find out from “Bag It”:

• Where plastic bags go? — Go away? Where is away?– There is no away. Plastic bags are everywhere.
• Making one plastic bottle needs a quarter bottle of gasoline. If we won’t take action to solve the plastic recycle, we would waste more resources and cause more pollution
• Only a small part of the plastic product can be recycled effectively. Most plastic trash goes landfill or buried. For now, the recycling rate is quite low.
• Plastic waste mostly goes to Asia, especially China.
• The pollution caused by the plastic product is more serious than our imagination: plastic bags kill animals and break the balance of the ecosystem.
• The plastic product also damage human health

Take away:

• We should reduce the consumption of plastic products and control what we have made to the environment.
• Teaching consumer “what is a good product” is important.

Response to Vice video and reading material:

In the past decade, China plays the role of “trash collector” around the world. As the reading material says, “In 2016, China imported two-thirds of the world’s plastic waste. So when China stopped buying the world’s discarded plastics, it threw markets into turmoil. But it also created opportunity“. I am thinking about why China decides to stop doing the trash business. The first thing come to my mind is that the amount of plastic trash may exceed the capacity of recycling waste in China. In addition, China may not be able to recycle at an effective rate, which means that the trash business is keeping the polluting environment in China. It is reasonable for China to stop importing plastic waste. Other Asian countries like Indonesia and India have less capacity to take over the business of China. It is telling that the globe is facing a serious issue of solving plastic waste. However, as I think, it is not a bad thing because the action of China will be the trigger other developed countries who used to ship their trash to China to set up or refine their recycling institution and system. Instead of keeping relying on China, it is better for all the countries on the earth to solve plastic waste together.