Undergraduate Research Project
title. Message in A Bottle
date. December 2017
city. Auburn, AL
size. Three 11" x 17" boards
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For my undergraduate research project, I chose to focus on water pollution - more specifically, the effects of plastic pollution on our environment and ways that you can do your part to help prevent this from becoming an even greater detriment to our planet and to our way of life.
I began by focusing on The Great Pacific Garbage Patch and educating my audience on what this is, where it is located and how it came to be.
My research included some less-than-ideal imagery to show the effect that plastics have already had. Thousands of bird, turtle and fish species are killed every year due to the consumption of plastics and micro-plastics.
I also wanted to focus on the reasons why it is so urgent for humanity to start to understand the effects that plastic pollution has, not just on our marine ecosystems but on our planet overall. Plastics are having a direct impact on the quality of human life, and the future of our oceans. I believe that if people are more educated on how this directly impacts them, they will be more likely to advocate for recycling and halting the use of non-recyclable plastics moving forward.
While conducting my research I found a few outstanding examples of ways that other people are attempting to increase awareness for and combat the effects of plastic pollutions. The first example I would like to share is an art installation by the artist Jean Shin. The exhibit is called MAiZE and it is an exhibit that you can walk around in. Comprised of 12,000 plastic bottles, this exhibit was created to raise awareness and stir dialogue about agricultural waste and plastic pollution.
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The second example that I decided to use was something that was truly amazing and innovative. A company called Repreve takes recycled plastic bottles and creates a recycled PET (polyethylene terephthalate) fiber out of them. This fiber is then used to create clothing, handbags, car interiors, rugs, tapestries and other materials. There are a number of popular brands that are currently using this fiber, and when you purchase an item that this material was used to create, you are able to see exactly how many plastic bottles was used to create that particular item.
