The sea without human intervention is heaven. That is, if heaven is described as full of beauty , then the natural sea is also like that.
Then how about the sea in 2050? You may answer them; Horrible. That is when referring to the predictions of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the World Economic Forum in a publication entitled The New Plastics Economy in 2016.
By 2050, according to the prediction, there will be more plastic waste in the sea than fish. The light nature of plastic makes it possible to reach the sea quickly, even if it is dumped on top of a mountain.
When it reaches the sea, plastic can become smaller, only 5 mm in size. This mini size is known as microplastics.Currently, microplastics have been found in human blood.
Some of the plastics do not only become inhabitants of the sea but also become inhabitants of the stomachs of marine life. Is plastic waste that terrible if it reaches the sea, yes it is.
Who is behind the plastic pouring into the sea? The answer is not animals or plants, but humans. The most perfect creature created and has intelligence.
So, intelligence is what brought humans to discover plastic. The findings were initially predicted and glorified as a savior for the environment.
Disastrous savior
The existence of plastic aims to reduce packaging made of paper. Paper made from wood, the more massively used, the thinner the wood on earth.
That’s why when John Wesley Hyatt invented synthetic polymers in 1869. It was considered a solution to save the earth. However, as time moves on, plastic, which was originally a savior for the environment or the earth, has become a disaster. But the waste, especially the plastic waste that we throw away in Pascal Schelbli’s imagination and creativity, becomes a new life in the sea. The trash turned into living things.
Pascal Schelbli demonstrates just that in an animated short film called The Beauty. Where trash transforms into living things in the ocean replacing real fish, seaweed and coral.
At first, the short film, which was produced in 2019, did not show the horrors of plastic waste in the sea. Instead, we will find fish swimming happily, changing faces into flip flops, seaweed turning into plastic straws, and plastic spoons turning into coral.
Not only that, but spectators will also find eels from used tires swimming around. Pufferfish are made of plastic air bubbles, and plastic bottles turn into fish and plastic bags turn into jellyfish.
What Pascal Schelbli displays in his short film more or less describes sea conditions in 2050 which are predicted to produce more waste, especially plastic than fish.
Garbage breathes
The animated short film does highlight the issue of pollution in the oceans. The Beauty is a poetic journey across the ocean, which is astonishing and disgusting, which illustrates that the trash in the sea is not dead—they breathe.
“Sometimes I feel numb and helpless on the topic of marine pollution. So, I have an idea of what if plastic could be integrated into marine life? Apparently, this simple dream can actually be achieved. Through sweat, tears and the help of an extraordinary team, this (project) is something to be proud of and I want to share it with the whole world,” Schelbli told Bored Panda.
For those who watch the short film, it is possible that it will give birth to feelings of guilt because they have disposed of their trash irresponsibly.
Even though the duration of the animated short film is only 4:13 minutes, it takes up to 20 months in total to be made.
In making The Beauty, Schelbli was not alone, he was assisted by 9 core crew members. The crew came from Schelbli’s colleagues at film school. If in total there are 20 people involved in the film.“Through this film, I can inject a hidden influence on someone who watches The Beauty. So far I haven’t gotten any negative feedback. When someone tells me they cried after watching this film, I’m really impressed,” he explained. Anyway, green friend, The beauty has won the 2020 Student Academy Award.