As storm clouds gathered on a forgotten beach in China’s Miaodao islands, artist Fu Junsheng picked his way through piles of plastic waste washed up along the shoreline, looking for inspiration.
China is the world’s largest plastic producer, and the islands — a niche tourist destination — sit in the cross-stream of several highly developed eastern peninsulas. Every squall brings fresh waves of floating debris onto the archipelago’s white sand beaches. Eight years ago Fu decided to make that waste his artistic message and medium.
“Our generation has witnessed rapid societal development. In the process, we’ve sometimes neglected nature, and at times, even ignored it altogether,” the 36-year-old said as he showed reporters around his studio, full of pieces created from plastic washed ashore.
Photo: AFP
One of the most striking installations features nearly 900 flip-flops displayed in front of his seascape oil paintings.
Marine debris “carries our daily life, the life of each of us,” he said.
The oldest item Fu has collected is an instant noodle packet from 1993. Despite more than 30 years of exposure to the elements, it remains intact, showing hardly any signs of decomposition.
Photo: AFP
Objects like this “don’t disappear, but instead break down into tiny particles, which can end up being ingested by marine life and, eventually, by us,” Fu said. “This process is invisible to the naked eye.”
The Miaodao islands sit opposite the Korean Peninsula, where this week negotiators from around the world are attempting to hammer out an international treaty to curb plastic pollution.
Fu has found lighters and coffee bottles from South Korea on his beachcombing trips.
“Marine ecological protection requires people from different countries and regions to work together,” he said. “It’s not a localized issue — it’s a broader, global problem.”
At university in nearby Qingdao, Fu became interested in the environmental consequences of China’s rapid urbanization from the late 1980s onward. These days China’s factories make the most plastic worldwide — 75 million tonnes in last year, according to official statistics.
While it is not considered the world’s largest plastic polluter, its 1.4 billion citizens still created 63 million tonnes of waste plastic in 2022, state media reported, citing a national body.
Most of that was recycled, put into landfills or incinerated — about 30 percent each — while 7 percent was directly abandoned.
Fu said that while completely eliminating plastic use is unrealistic, it is essential to use it in a “more controllable and precise way.”
More than 90 percent of plastic worldwide is not recycled, with more than 20 million tonnes leaking into the environment, often after just a few minutes of use.
“People often approach these problems from an individual perspective, but environmental issues are collective challenges for humanity,” Fu said.
Fu has collected countless objects — mostly everyday household items such as children’s toys, balloons, toothbrushes and bottles.
He said his aim is to make the public recognize how intimately marine pollution is tied to their daily lives.
In one piece posted online, he constructed a rainbow from colored plastic bits; in another, a deflated sex doll is surrounded by tens of multicolored rubber gloves. One display includes a shelf of worn cosmetics and toiletries containers.
“These products are meant to make us feel cleaner and more beautiful, but they often end up in the ocean, polluting the water, damaging marine ecosystems and ultimately making our world less beautiful,” Fu said.
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