Chesterfield business works with local artist to raise awareness about plastic pollution

Chesterfield company Kakou CIC has teamed up with local Chesterfield artist Lucie Maycock to create a sculpture of a whale made entirely from plastic bottles, as part of the Ocean Life exhibit at Chesterfield Museum and Art Gallery.

36 million plastic bottles are used by households in the UK every day. They work themselves into just about every aspect of our daily lives. The popularity of plastics is part of a huge problem and our dependence on them makes recycling and reusing plastic bottles essential for the health of the planet.

Beginning in March, the local public joined Lucie to help produce the sculpture during three workshops held at Chesterfield Museum and Art Gallery and the Pavements Shopping Centre.

The “Ocean Life” exhibition will run alongside the current Park Life exhibition at the Chesterfield Museum and Art Gallery. Ocean Life aims to raise awareness about plastics pollution, describes the impact of micro-plastics on the ocean environment, and provides examples of simple actions individuals can take at home to prevent plastic from ending up in the sea.

Rachel Fannen, Collections Officer at Chesterfield Museum and Art Gallery said:-

“Chesterfield Museum and Art Gallery naturally jumped at the opportunity to support Kakou’s 2018 campaign to raise awareness about the dangerous impact of plastic on our world but most especially on marine environments.

“Kakou’s 2018 British Science Week project raised awareness by creating a plastics sculpture through local art workshops facilitated by artist Lucie Maycock.

“Chesterfield Museum is very proud to display the finished sculpture which will be accompanied by a display explaining the devastating effect of waste plastics on our planet.”

The exhibition runs from the 7th July and more information can be found here.