Plastic waste from the canal goes on a pub crawl through Brussels as a protest against plastic pollution

Are you currently sitting at our table in a café with the frantic clock above your head? Then right now, you are part of an awareness-raising art installation called “Time’s ticking by very fast and what are we doing about plastic pollution?”.

The table and clock are made from a large amount of plastic waste that was collected from the Brussels canal by participants of our kayak activity and by the Port of Brussels. Despite six years of City to Ocean’s efforts and the cleanup boats of the Port, the canal remains heavily polluted with floating plastic waste. And things aren’t any better elsewhere in Brussels—reports of litter and public frustration keep piling up, while solutions remain absent, just like government formation and funding for Brussels-based NGOs.

The table and clock contain plastic bags, bottle caps, plastic cups, take-away lids, and all sorts of packaging—items for which alternatives already exist that could prevent this waste or keep it out of nature. Yet the situation doesn’t seem to be improving—on the contrary. With this traveling art installation, we want to draw attention to plastic pollution, spark conversation among those sitting at the table, and call on the various parliaments in Belgium to implement bold and ambitious solutions.

Why bars?

Bars are one of the last places where things still operate largely waste-free. Beer is delivered in reusable kegs and beer bottles, and soft drinks are also mostly served in reusable glass bottles. No plastic, and no single-use items. Could this unconsciously be one of the reasons why people who care about the environment still enjoy going to bars? For us, it certainly is. However, this waste-free approach doesn’t yet apply to wine bottles and bottles of spirits—but hopefully, that’s only a matter of time. And while cafés are setting a good example here, it is ironically beer and soft drinks that represent the most visible problem in the environment. In Belgium, 40% of the volume of litter consists of plastic bottles and cans, and these are also the most frequently collected waste items by participants in our kayaking activity through central Brussels.

Plastic pollution goes far beyond just plastic bottles in the gutter

Plastic has been steadily infiltrating the environment, our living spaces, and our bodies in all its forms for years:

Every year, 430 million tons of plastic are produced worldwide.
About two-thirds of all that plastic is used only once before being discarded.
Over 100,000 marine animals die each year from plastic pollution, often due to suffocation or internal injuries.
Plastic has been found in the deepest ocean trenches and on the highest mountain peaks, including Mount Everest.
Microplastics have been detected in human blood, breast milk, and placentas.
On average, people consume the equivalent of one credit card worth of plastic per week (about 5 grams) through water, air, and food.
Research shows that microplastics can cause cell damage, inflammation, and possibly hormone disruption.
Less than 10% of all plastic produced globally is recycled. The rest is burned, landfilled, or ends up in the environment.
Much of what is labeled as “recycled plastic” is ultimately dumped in developing countries, often in illegal landfills.
If we continue at this pace, by 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish (by weight).

And the latest alarming discovery: microplastics hinder photosynthesis in plants, putting global food production at risk.

What do you think about this?

Can you do something to help change the situation? Can the people around you make a difference? Maybe you’re already doing something?

It certainly helps if you try to buy as few single-use plastic items or packaging as possible, avoid drinking from plastic bottles and choose glass instead, avoid using plastic in your kitchen or bathroom, don’t buy synthetic clothing, don’t leave anything next to an overflowing trash can, don’t let yourself be influenced by advertising, and avoid eating fish, as the fishing industry is a major source of plastic pollution in the oceans. This issue touches nearly every aspect of our lives and stems from the omnipresence of plastic and plastic pollution.

Unfair game

Have you noticed how the consumer is almost always the one being blamed when companies or certain politicians speak in the media about plastic pollution, or when yet another cleanup call is launched by Mooimakers or BeWapp? Producers and supermarkets flood society with enormous and ever-increasing amounts of single-use plastic, yet somehow always manage to reduce the problem to “consumers who leave plastic waste in the streets.”

The full story is that plastic pollutes throughout its entire life cycle: from the extraction of oil, to plastic nurdles that end up directly in the environment during manufacturing and transport, to microplastics that enter our bodies when we consume products packaged in plastic (for example, by drinking from plastic bottles), and from waste collection to recycling or incineration. At every stage, plastic finds its way into the environment and into our bodies, as well as those of animals.

And this happens more invisibly than visibly. Monthly sewage overflows, for example, release massive amounts of microplastics into our waterways, and a piece of littered plastic that eventually gets cleaned up may already have released a significant amount of microplastics due to exposure to sunlight, rain, and wind.

Yet, little of this is visible in the streets. On the contrary, millions are spent on (street) advertising for products in plastic packaging. What you consciously see in the Chaudfontaine ad shown here is that it’s sparkling and fruity—but at the same time, you’re also being sent an unconscious message: that it’s perfectly fine to consume from a plastic bottle, that plastic bottles are a normal part of our society, that they represent today’s standard—and that there’s nothing wrong with that.

The finale

Have you sat at our table, heard about it through others, or simply want to do something about plastic pollution? Then send a message to the business world with your purchasing behavior: avoid plastic as much as possible, especially single-use plastic. What a CEO of a large company understands very well, but many people do not, is that when enough people unite, they can completely shut down a company or industry simply by refusing to buy a product.

Are you a politician in Brussels or Belgium and want to do something about this? Then you can, among other things:

introduce a deposit system on plastic bottles,
ban plastic bags and plastic takeaway packaging and replace them with reusable alternatives,
ban street advertising for products in plastic packaging and misleading claims on products,
impose reuse quotas on producers and supermarkets for packaging,
make the production of synthetic clothing more difficult,
install a waste barrier or bubble screen in the canal to stop all waste before it flows into the sea,
place plinths along the canal to keep waste on the quay and out of the water,
stop all sewage overflows,
and better inform the public about the issue.

Are you a supermarket or producer of single-use plastic? Then we would love to meet you at one of the cafés around our table made of plastic waste. We are eager to hear your vision for the future and happily share ours.

See you at the bar?

The table and clock will be found in the bars listed below over the coming weeks. Bring everyone you know and gather around the table to discuss what your next step is or what we can do together. Convince that one friend to visit a packaging-free store, write a letter at the table to the supermarket where you do your shopping asking for products without packaging, put your schedules together at the table to watch a documentary about plastic pollution (a good tip is ‘Buy Now’), go to our website at the table to sign up for a kayak trip on the Brussels canal to experience plastic pollution up close—impact guaranteed—or simply use the table as a first date spot with the man or woman of your life, that’s fine too. Just be careful not to knock over glasses or bottles; the table wobbles slightly on its legs, just like nature, which is less and less able to tolerate us letting this continue unchecked.

Billie
19 until 26 May
Sint-katelijnestraat 42, 1000 Brussel

Café Merlo
26 May until 3 June
Baksteenkaai 80, 1000 Brussels

Billie
19 until 26 May
Sint-katelijnestraat 42, 1000 Brussel

Café Merlo
26 May until 3 june
Baksteenkaai 80, 1000 Brussels

Winok
3 until 10 june
Av. Louis Bertrand 48, 1030 Schaerbeek

L’ermitage nanobrasserie
10 until 17 june
34 Rue de Moscou, 1060 Brussel

Winok
3 until 10 june
Av. Louis Bertrand 48, 1030 Schaerbeek

L’ermitage nanobrasserie
10 until 17 june
34 Rue de Moscou, 1060 Brussel

Brussels Beer Project – Bailli
17 until 24 june
Rue du Bailli 1/A, 1000 Brussels