News article
Eden Park provides stage for poignant video on plastic waste
Auckland’s Eden Park was ‘filled' with a billion plastic bottles to demonstrate the number of single-use bottles purchased in New Zealand every year.
The CGI video was created in partnership with Greenpeace, demonstrating the vast level of bottles sold by major global companies.
Eden Park has a 50,000 capacity, making it New Zealand’s largest stadium and one of the country’s most iconic venues. Its cultural status means it provides a poignant background for the campaign.
“To avoid using real plastic bottles, we have rendered the video with CGI, but the picture it paints is very real,” said Greenpeace spokesperson Juressa Lee.
“Thanks to companies like Coca-Cola, the world is drowning in plastic. Here in Aotearoa (New Zealand) alone, companies like Coke sell one billion single-use plastic bottles every year. Only a small portion of single-use plastic is ever recycled, but all of it inevitably breaks down into microplastic pollution.”
Greenpeace has previously played a key role in the campaign to ban plastic bags, and is further calling on the New Zealand Government to ban other single-use plastic items such as bottles, making a switch to a reusable model.
“Over 100,000 people have signed our petition calling on the government to ban single-use plastic bottles, and we hope this stark illustration of the sheer volume of plastic bottles sold in New Zealand every year will prompt even more people to join the call,” said Lee.
Internationally, the campaigning network has also called for a global plastics treaty that would reduce plastic production and prioritise protecting biodiversity, safeguarding the climate and ensuring a transition to a low-carbon, reuse-based economy.
According to Greenpeace, it is estimated that only 9% of all the plastic waste ever produced has been recycled, with the level of plastic waste on track to almost triple by 2060. Around half is set to end up in landfill, with less than a fifth to be recycled.
Image: Greenpeace/Eden Park