5 Gyres - Understanding Plastic Pollution Through Exploration, Education, and Action

Anyone who thinks that UN events are characterized by marathon delegate meetings and painstaking negotiations behind closed doors hasn’t met the Safe Planet Campaign.

Case in point: last weeks “Full Fathom Five” event at the Magnan Metz Gallery in Chelsea NYC – a wildly entertaining and informative evening of artwork, music, poetry, film, and science. And wine…served in stainless steel cup-lettes. What more could you ask for?


Full Fathom Five drew art lovers and sustainability advocates alike to learn about Safe Planet, a UN initiative that leverages 3 International Conventions – Stockholm, Rotterdam, and Basel, to raise awareness about the harmful effects of toxic chemicals and waste on human health. One area of concern: the potential health impacts of plastic pollution, as pollutants from plastic travel up the food chain. This connection is what brought 5 Gyres’ work to the attention of the Safe Planet team, who have since invited us to present at a number of International events – from Geneva to Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro to Hawaii. And many more on the horizon.


(L Wendy Mackie, R Barbara Benish)

Barbara Benish welcomed the crowd last Thursday night with an overview of the Safe Planet Campaign, only one year in existence but already making waves for its tremendously successful outreach model, using artwork and film as communication tools. Barbara was followed by Katharina Kummer Peiry, Executive Secretary of the Basel Convention - and as I learned, also an avid sailor! We’re hoping she might join our next 5 Gyres expedition…

We then heard from Wendy Mackie from Clean The Bay, a Rhode Island based non-profit responsible for removing astoun1400 tons of plastic waste from RI shores since 2005, and gallery owner Larry Litt;



 who shared his “Cupbearer Project”, inspired by noticing the tremendous amount of plastic waste generated by wine tasting/artwalk hopping. Brilliant idea – I love my cup, and hope we can work with Larry to encourage other galleries to follow his lead.



Poetry and music followed, with moving prose from Jorn Ake, and a few selections of Ben Lear’s Rock/Folk opera Lillian. Ben is a NY based musician who recently sailed with (and serenaded) us across the South Pacific Ocean, studying plastic in a new part of the word. Just to his left, Barbara Benish’s arresting painting inspired by 5 Gyres.



5 Gyres then had the floor, to share our newest film – a beautiful piece from Jody Lemmon documenting our South Atlantic Expedition, and say a few words on our global findings. We’ve now seen plastic pollution across 25,000 miles of ocean, and are focusing our efforts on outreach and solutions. We will continue monitoring, with our next expedition in the works to the “Western Garbage Patch’ off Japan in a years time. Given the approaching wave of debris from the Tsunami, this voyage is already generating a buzz.



We wrapped up with a film from Howard Baral and a final address from Michael Stanley-Jones describing Safe Planet’s work on the “Body Burden”, a key component of the campaign. “Body burden” refers to the sum total of synthetic chemicals and heavy metals that we all carry in our bodies, accumulating even before our birth. Howard’s film shows actor/activist Ed Begley Jr. and Olympic medalist Stine Hattestad undergoing body burden tests, a process known as “biomonitoring”. Two very healthy people, right? Yet both had trace levels of numerous contaminants in their bodies, and Begely Jr.’s DDT levels were 2-3x higher than Stine’s. What implications do these pollutant levels have on our health? How on earth are we simply standing by, allowing our own bodies to be contaminated by corporate greed and ignorance?



I had my own body burden analyzed in 2009, and found trace levels of PCBs, DDT, PFCs, and higher levels of flame retardants (PBDEs) in my blood serum. While I’m no Olympian, I am a relatively healthy, mostly organic eating, mostly vegetarian athletic person. Finding ANY levels of these Persistent Organic Pollutants in my body is unacceptable. We simply don’t have enough information to know what impacts these will have on our long-term health, or on our children. We cannot stand by idly – our silence is tacit acceptance.  Its chilling to think that our bodies are the ultimate repository for corporate “externalities”, an innocuous way of saying we all suffer for the contamination that industry doesn’t pay for – for the pollution in our oceans, in our water, in our air, and in our own blood….

5 Gyres is thrilled to join this growing network of educators, artists, scientists, and high level policymakers. We have many projects on the horizons - look out for future Safe Planet events in your city. And don’t forget your stainless steel wine cup.