Environmentalists in Indonesia have found an eye-catching way to call attention to the world’s ocean plastics crisis. They’ve created an outdoor exhibition in the town of Gresik made out of more than 10,000 plastic waste items—such as bottles, bags, and straws—pulled from local rivers and beaches. Plastic pollution can cause significant damage to marine life and ecosystems, and the problem is particularly dire in Indonesia, which ranks second behind China for its volume of plastics that end up in the sea. Worldwide, scientists estimate, more than 8 million metric tons of plastic end up in the ocean yearly, the equivalent of a garbage truck’s worth every minute.
That’s why the activists behind this exhibit are encouraging people to rethink their consumption habits. And so far, the message seems to be clicking with many visitors. “I will have to buy reusable things such as drinking bottles instead of buying plastic bottles,” student Ayu Chandra Wulan told Reuters. “By looking at how much waste there is here, I feel sad.”