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Soul: Loving our oceans - “Turning trash into art to inspire ocean conservation”
One person’s waste can be another’s treasure, and these treasures can inspire others to take care of the oceans and the marine environment that connect us all
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One person’s waste can be another’s treasure, and these treasures can inspire others to take care of the oceans and the marine environment that connect us all.
Almost 100 school children and volunteers gathered in Sanur to transform waste materials into useful and creative products at the Trash Art Competition organized by the Coral Triangle Center last Saturday.
The competition highlighted creative ways to reduce and re-use waste products so that they do not end up in the ocean. Most often, waste that is not properly disposed of gets washed out into the sea, killing coral and endangering marine life that gets entangled in it or mistakes it as food.
The activity was organized as part the World Ocean Day and Coral Triangle Day celebrations, an annual, open-sourced event that brings together individuals, organizations and establishments on one special day of the year to shed light on ocean conservation and the numerous ways to protect and conserve the world’s epicenter of marine biodiversity — the Coral Triangle. This year’s theme is “Save the Coral Triangle, Say No to Plastic”.
Participants in the Trash Art Competition, which included children from the Children’s Development Center (PPA), junior high school students and several communities in Sanur, took the theme to heart.
“We made tissue boxes and pencil cases out of plastic bottles. Our message is: save our sea animals. Many people catch fish illegally. We hope that what we have made will inspire people to stop illegal fishing practices and protect Indonesia’s rich marine biodiversity,” said one of the participants from PPA.
The winning team used plastic and old CDs to make a 3D aquarium so that people would buy fewer aquariums, which deplete corals and fish, and instead buy more artwork.
CTC executive director Rili Djohani noted that the creative spirit during the competition could go a long way in raising awareness about waste management and conservation. “The participants were very creative on what marine conservation means to them. We hope that this will build more awareness in Bali and beyond about the need to stop plastic waste on the island and in the oceans,” she said.
“After all the information shared today about conservation and recycling, we must think about what we are consuming and what we are throwing away,” said Bali-based artist Made Bayak, who also uses waste products as a medium for his creations.
“We must be aware of our consumption habits, for example, choosing foods that are not wrapped in a lot of plastic and using bottles that can be refilled. The next step after today and events like this is to be more aware of our consumption patterns and change our habits,” he said
Brendan Hallick from Trash Hero Indonesia, a group that organizes regular beach clean ups around Bali, highlighted the impact of waste from the land on the sea. “The message is if we look after our oceans, our oceans can look after us,” he said.
As part of World Ocean Day and Coral Triangle Day, CTC also organized Adopt a Coral and an Underwater Clean Up Dive on Semawang Beach, Sanur, on Wednesday, inviting the public and dive operators to take part in ocean conservation.
