Carol Chewning

Ihave been an advocate/activist for Mother Nature and the environment since I was a teenager. Now there is an even greater sense of urgency to make people aware of the plastic pollution poisoning our fragile planet.

Geologists and scientists are grappling with the name for this era in which humans have caused mass extinctions of plant and animal species, polluted the oceans and altered the atmosphere. “Plasticene” seems appropriate. We are quite literally drowning in the stuff, and there is no where else for single-use plastic to go until we can close the loop and make it profitable to recycle and reuse all the material. Like an unwelcome guest, once it enters our world it never goes away.

Consumers have been encouraged to recycle plastic water bottles and plastic grocery bags, although only 9% actually gets recycled. These items can be remade into other products. Nearly 380 million tons of plastic packaging is used as wrapping just to get products from one place to another, only to be thrown away once its intended purpose is completed. As yet there is no system to recycle and re-use these plastic wrappers; so they end up in the landfill, or worse in our coastal waterways and eventually the ocean. An estimated 10 million tons of plastic are dumped into the ocean every year which subsequently breaks down into toxic microplastic particles, about the size of a sesame seed or less. Just like frayed fabric, the plastic releases and leaches tiny bits of itself into the atmosphere. This Pretty Plastic Poison has been found in our air, our water, our food, and a 2022 study found people eat 5 grams of micro and nanoplastics, about the size of a credit card, every week. Not only is plastic detected in our bloodstream and lungs, but also now in our gastrointestinal tract. Scientists predict that by the year 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish, plastics will account for 20% of total oil consumption.

My quilt is made single-use grocery store packaging cut and stitched into traditional quilt square patterns: nine-patch, rail fence, peaceful geese, and modified square dance to illustrate the amount of plastic packaging we use during a normal day. Unlike a traditional quilt my quilt is neither warm nor snuggly. The food may be mostly healthy, but the packaging should come with a red warning label.

Find out what you can do in your community to stem the tide of plastic pollution.

Pretty Plastic Poison 2022 33” x 37” Mixed Media Art Quilt NFS seagrass2015@gmail.com