# Perpetual Plastic

_Beach debris reveals the fate of all plastic_

Published: 2019-12-04

Live project: [http://perpetual-plastic.net](http://perpetual-plastic.net)

What is the fate of all plastic ever produced? This 14m diameter data art sculpture, made from beach debris, provides the answer.

## Key visuals

- Two people on a Bali beach beside the colorful semi-radial plastic sculpture at sunset, temple shrine on a cliff
- Aerial hero view of the plastic-debris sculpture beside crashing ocean surf on a Bali beach
- Close-up of beach plastic sorted by color into rows of blue and red flip-flops, green sandals and white bottles
- Angled beach view of the spiraling plastic sculpture with volunteers, palm trees and surf at dawn
- Labeled aerial of the sculpture showing plastic fate — 60% discarded, 24% still in use, 9% incinerated, 7% recycled
- Volunteers arranging plastic pieces and baskets of sorted debris while building the sculpture on the beach
- Overhead view of volunteers laying blue and green rows of flip-flops with baskets of sorted plastic
- Top-down view of near-complete rainbow arcs of sorted flip-flops and plastic with a volunteer placing pieces

Since the early 1950s, 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic have been produced for human consumption. To understand the environmental legacy of exponential plastic production, we visualized what happens to plastics after its first use.

![Aerial view of the semi-radial plastic sculpture labeled with plastic's fate: 60% discarded, 24% still in use, 9% incinerated, 7% recycled]()

Installed on a beach in Bali with marine debris collected from nearby, this data artwork investigates our global plastic waste stream and emphasizes how mismanaged waste ends up in the ocean.

## Our focus

Our project highlights the scope of the plastic problem (in terms of amount produced as well as its fate) and the transformation of plastic over its lifetime, using beach debris as a salient example. The situated, participatory data installation approach extends abstract displays of numbers towards a more gripping form of ‘data visceralization.’ The direct link to beach clean-up activities suggests immediate opportunities for action, turning the sculpture into a catalyst for engagement.

![Timelapse of volunteers sorting and arranging collected beach plastic into the semi-radial Perpetual Plastic sculpture]()

## Data art installation

The 14m (46ft) diameter piece was assembled from 4760 pieces of plastic trash and took 12+ hours to install.

![Aerial hero view of the 14m plastic-debris sculpture on a Bali beach beside crashing surf, labeled 8.3bn tonnes produced since 1950]()

## Visualization design

The statistics used originate from a widely cited scientific publication on the ["Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made"](https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/7/e1700782). The publication featured a representation of the main statistics in form of a flow diagram. The data platform "Our World in Data" created a reworked [Sankey diagram](https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution#global-plastic-production-to-fate), which served as inspiration for our semi-radial redesign.

![Design evolution from the original plastics flow diagram to a Sankey redesign to the final semi-circle visualization]()

![Hand-drawn planning sketch on graph paper with dimensions and basket counts for laying out the beach sculpture]()

Learn more about the project at [http://perpetual-plastic.net](http://perpetual-plastic.net).

## Credits

A collaboration with art activist Liina Klauss as well as marine scientist and designer Skye Morét

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[View on truth-and-beauty.net](https://truth-and-beauty.net/projects/perpetual-plastic)