ArtScience Museum's Planet Or Plastic? exhibition spotlights plastic pollution crisis

Teng Yong Ping
·Lifestyle Editor
Updated ·2-min read
A loggerhead turtle caught in an old fishing net in the Mediterranean Sea off Spain, in a photograph at the ArtScience Museum's Planet Or Plastic exhibition by National Geographic. (Photo: Jordi Chias)
A loggerhead turtle caught in an old fishing net in the Mediterranean Sea off Spain, in a photograph at the ArtScience Museum's Planet Or Plastic exhibition by National Geographic. (Photo: Jordi Chias)

Did you know, it is estimated that 9.2 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced since the 1950s, and close to 7 billion tonnes of that plastic now exists as waste on Earth? And that today, humans produce more than 400 million tonnes of plastic globally each year which, when disposed of, linger for centuries without decomposing?

Our ecology is experiencing a plastic pollution crisis, and the ArtScience Museum’s latest exhibition, Planet Or Plastic? aims to galvanise us into taking action to reduce the plastic waste that enters our landfills and oceans.

Yahoo Lifestyle SEA was at the media preview of Planet Or Plastic?, which will run from 12 Sept 2020 to 21 March 2021. It features more than 70 powerful photographs and videos from National Geographic that raise awareness of society’s dependence on plastic and its impact on our natural environment.

You will be faced with gut-wrenching photographs of marine wildlife that are threatened by plastic waste, such as a fledgeling Laysan albatross that died with a stomach full of plastic rubbish, and a loggerhead turtle desperately trying to escape from a discarded fishing net.

Interactive space at the ArtScience Museum's Planet Or Plastic exhibition. (Photo: Marina Bay Sands)
Interactive space at the ArtScience Museum's Planet Or Plastic exhibition. (Photo: Marina Bay Sands)

Mandy Barker’s series of photographic art presents marine plastic debris in interesting shapes and forms that ironically echo elements of nature, provoking reflection on the impact of pollutants on our ecology.

Besides highlighting the problems, visitors are also provided practical steps we can take to reduce, reuse, recycle, and refuse single-use plastic products.

Planet Or Plastic? is the first exhibition opening at the ArtScience Museum since the COVID-19 pandemic occurred. Accordingly, safety management measures will be carried out, including a limit on the number of visitors at a time and hourly sanitisation of high-touch surfaces.

Guests are strongly encouraged to pre-purchase tickets online before their visit, due to limits in venue capacity and timed entry to exhibitions at ArtScience Museum. Each guest is limited to five tickets per purchase.

Here are some selected photographs from the exhibition:

Mixed plastics at a Recology recycling plant in San Francisco, California, in a photograph at the ArtScience Museum's Planet Or Plastic exhibition by National Geographic. (Photo: Randy Olson)
Mixed plastics at a Recology recycling plant in San Francisco, California, in a photograph at the ArtScience Museum's Planet Or Plastic? exhibition by National Geographic. (Photo: Randy Olson)
A seahorse latched onto a plastic cotton swab in polluted waters off the Indonesian island of Sumbawa, in a photograph at the ArtScience Museum's Planet Or Plastic exhibition by National Geographic. (Photo:
A seahorse latched onto a plastic cotton swab in polluted waters off the Indonesian island of Sumbawa, in a photograph at the ArtScience Museum's Planet Or Plastic? exhibition by National Geographic. (Photo: Justin Hofman)
Women sorting discarded plastic bottles to be recycled in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in a photograph at the ArtScience Museum's Planet Or Plastic exhibition by National Geographic. (Photo: Randy Olson)
Women sorting discarded plastic bottles to be recycled in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in a photograph at the ArtScience Museum's Planet Or Plastic? exhibition by National Geographic. (Photo: Randy Olson)
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