Living In Plastic Pollution, Exhibition

This exhibition was part of the first Plastic Health Summit 2019, held in Amsterdam on October 3.

The exhibition:
A regular day along the banks of the Salado estuary shows children bathing in the water, young people hanging out, or adults fishing to feed their families. But this estuary that crosses Guayaquil, the most populated city in Ecuador (2.3 million inhabitants), from north to south, is severely polluted and can affect the health of surrounding communities.

This pollution comes from different sources. A mix of domestic trash thrown directly from homes dumped retail and industrial waste and sewage. Some people think that this dumping happens due to a lack of education. But it does not help that garbage collection is less frequent in poorer neighborhoods when compared to richer parts of Guayaquil.

‘My Backyard’
A young boy stands under the laundry of his home, and next to the waste that the estuary displays. Perhaps the waste was brought by the water or created by his family or neighbors; or all of them.

©Fabiola Minda All rights reserved

‘Plastic Forever’
A woman rests at her window next to a pile of plastic garbage at the Salado estuary. Most of the single-use plastic that we have acquired in our lives still exists somewhere, in a landfill, in the ocean or a river etc.

©Fabiola Minda All rights reserved

‘The Plastic Garden’
Terrestrial microplastic pollution is much higher than marine microplastic pollution – estimated at four to 23 times higher, depending on the environment.

©Fabiola Minda All rights reserved

‘Chaos’
A dog and a cat stand on waste abandoned at the banks of the estuary, next to a home.

©Fabiola Minda All rights reserved