Wheelock Square, a premium office tower located in downtown Shanghai, participated in the global call to action on single-use plastics.
The Wheelock Square Building Management collaborated with Green Initiatives on the Plastics are Forever project and organized a 3-week exhibition. Titled ‘My Days Without Plastic’, the exhibition raised awareness on single-use plastic and offered simple solutions to the building’s tenants to reduce single-use plastic in their homes and offices.
More than 8 million tons of plastic enters our oceans each year, 80% of which originates on land. The world is consuming over a million plastic bottles a minute (source). In fact, scientists predict that if we continue to consume plastics at the current rate, there may be more tons of plastic in the ocean than tons of fish by the year 2050.
One of the key features of this exhibition was the creation of a 2-meter tall whale sculpture made entirely out of discarded plastic bottles. The sculpture aimed to bring to attention the large number of whales dying due to excessive plastic debris in the ocean. It also hoped to remind people in an intuitive and shocking way how plastic waste has become the number one killer of marine creatures. Plastic waste not only dominates the ‘living space’ of marine creatures, but it also ends up killing many of them, who accidentally eat it thinking its food.
The exhibition was open both to the staff and tenants of Wheelock Square as well as the community. Individuals from different parts of the city were able to view the exhibition.
Through this collaboration, Wheelock Square and Green Initiatives aimed to reinforce the message that legislation alone cannot solve the huge global problem of plastic waste. And that every company, whether big or small, its employees and regular citizens, need to contribute through their actions - be it learning, knowledge sharing, responsible procurement practices or simply through their own actions and behaviours.
