TRASH ISLAND (2030)

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) also known as Trash Island, refers to the excess of plastic floating around the North Pacific Ocean in swathes caused by currents called ‘gyres’. Our project envisions a speculative future where Trash Island is no longer an amorphous cloud of plastic, but a dystopian corporeal habitat. Visualising this at its extreme, the habitat becomes a tourist attraction as the world’s 196th country, a physical manifestation of our global neglect. We pose the question – what role do you as an individual play in contributing to Trash Island?

Joining our individual strengths, we collaborated to create an artistic zine, imagining the future of Trash Island, both speculatively and with informational projections. We gathered remnants of consumption from the shores of Brighton, and transformed them into objects one might find on the island in the year 2030, as if it were solid land. A speculative love letter to the island arouses thoughts on how we can redefine our relationship with plastic waste and find beauty in what we discard. Using plastic waste, we designed future news articles and invitations, envisioning people visiting Trash Island as a tourist destination. We utilised the ‘Futures Cone’ to visually display the likely futures of plastic consumption.

We invite you to question your behaviour surrounding consumerism and single-use plastic, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now three times larger than France and growing. Is that a future you want to see?