Canadian artist creates mermaid from 10,000 plastic bottles to raise pollution awareness

A Canadian artist used 10,000 plastic bottles to create mesmerizing mermaid displays to get people thinking about how much plastic they waste.

Benjamin Von Wong, 28, borrowed bottles from a waste management centre and — with the help of volunteers — used them to shoot mermaids “trapped” in a plastic beach.

MORE: Why our oceans are choking on our garbage and how we can stop it

“I’ve always been morbidly fascinated by how much waste we generate, I just didn’t know how to represent it but when my mom stumbled across a designer that made mermaid tails, that’s when everything started coming together in my mind,” Von Wong told Global News.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I've always been morbidly fascinated by how much waste we generate, I just didn't know how to represent it but when my mom stumbled across a designer that made mermaid tails, that's when everything started coming together in my mind," Von Wong told Global News.

Volunteers removed the labels and caps and cleaned the 10,000 bottles used in the art project.

View image in full screen

Von Wong said he is concerned with the findings of a report by the World Economic Forum, that the world’s oceans may contain more plastic than fish by the year 2050.

Eight million tonnes of plastic ends up in oceans each year, the equivalent of one garbage truck being dumped per minute, the study suggests.

READ MORE: Oceans may have more plastic than fish by 2050: report

It also predicts the number could increase to two trucks per minute by 2030 and four by 2050.

“Fish eat plastic. Humans eat fish. Plastic is not good for anyone and there is no solution in sight,” Von Wong said.

View image in full screen

Von Wong hopes his #MermaidsHatePlastic campaign will encourage people to buy reusable bottles and in the long run push them to use less plastic in their lives.