(Photo: YouTube)
Art exhibit bringing awareness to single-use plastic waste
A Brooklyn-based artist, Robin Frohardt, is receiving a lot of attention for her latest exhibit located in Times Square to spread awareness of plastic waste. Frohardt’s project “The Plastic Bag Store” is an interactive art installation that is made completely out of single-use, discarded plastic waste.
“The Plastic Bag Store” looks like a normal grocery store but every item is handmade from upcycled plastic waste and the exhibit encourages guests to interact. The exhibit featured nearly 10,000 pieces created by Frohardt actively collection plastic waste for years with the help of her friends. Frohardt also sourced single-use plastic waste found on the streets and in her buildings.
The exhibit also features some surprises including a room completely encased in plastic bags. The U.S. consumes approximately 100 billion plastic bags per year according to the Center of Biological Diversity.
The Plastic Bag Store looks like a typical New York City grocery store, with rows of soda drinks and cartons on its shelves. But the pop-up art installation is meant to raise environmental awareness pic.twitter.com/nNqfovhTlW
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 19, 2020
Frohardt explains that she was blown away by the overuse of single-use plastic items, especially when people double or triple bag. She also wants this exhibit to encourage people to be more conscious of using single-use items.
A majority of single-use plastic items are made for convenience but not many people are aware that plastic can take hundreds of years to degrade for a single second of convenience. Frohardt hopes this exhibit will encourage people to eliminate waste with single-use items.
“The Plastic Bag Store” will be open to the public starting Oct. 22 to Nov. 7 that is free but requires guests to book a showing reservation in advance (due to safety protocols).
