The quest for a national cash for containers recycling scheme has got under the skin of a couple of Inner West high school students and budding artists from Sydney.
Isobel Baker, 14, from Dulwich High School of Visual Arts and Design created this fantastic CHOKE sculpture. She explains:
When planning my major artwork for Year 8 I thought about the amount of rubbish floating in the Cooks River in Marrickville. Local environment groups like the Mudcrabs think refunds on plastic bottles will help reduce the pollution.
When I heard that the Coca-Cola company had challenged the Northern Territory’s recycling scheme in court I decided to use culture jamming to draw attention to the need for a container deposit scheme.
I love that the word COKE can be simply changed to CHOKE and that this describes what their bottles are doing to our environment.
Just down the road, 15 year old Latifah Jackson-Vaughan from Canterbury Girls High School lives right on the Cooks River. Latifah took a discarded plastic water bottle on a trip around the world:
I made my video about plastic bottle pollution in our oceans and waterways because it is a cause I am very passionate about and I wanted to share the message of sustainable rubbish practices with my school, Canterbury Girls.
I am part of the environmental group there, and as the majority of the school is not very informed about the plastic issue, we are trying to improve their understanding. Our school is now becoming more aware and we are helping to reduce the plastic bottle waste that we produce as a whole.
The teacher who organised our green group was very invested and supportive of us. He was the one who suggested that I make the video.
We now sell no coke products (due to them opposing the cash for container scheme) or any water bottles. Instead we have a filtered water fountain, which is a massive improvement from previous years at Canterbury Girls.
What you can do
Isobel, the creator of CHOKE has uploaded her #TrashySelfie on Greenpeace’s #TrashySelfie site. If you have a minute we’d love to see your arty shot there too.
Greenpeace is working to make the world a better place for the children of the present and the future. The aim of this blog is to give children a voice in the struggle for a greener planet – it’s their world too. If you’d like to submit something to Kids Care, send us a message at [email protected]
