Man Takes Home 551lbs Of Trash From The Beach, Sorts It Out In His Backyard And Shares Interesting Finds
Interview With ArtistWhile you’re all bored, locked up in quarantine, thinking of what to put your hands on next, one guy has it all sorted. I mean, literally. Rob Arnold has sorted out 250 kg of washed plastic litter and put it all out to dry.
“Put the first 3 weeks of lockdown to good use, sorting microplastics at home,” wrote Rob in his Facebook post, which has been shared more than 6K times. But Rob is no rookie when it comes to cleaning beaches. He’s been raising awareness on marine plastic pollution with art objects, sculptures, and compositions all made from the sorted plastic. But littered shores are full of surprises, and some of his findings are incredible!
Bored Panda has written about Rob previously, when he collected 35 bags of microplastics on the Tregantle beach and turned it into art. Check it out right here.
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Rob Arnold collected washed plastic litter from a beach in Cornwall and put it out to dry while in quarantine
Bored Panda contacted Rob for an interview to find out more about his plastic-sorting hobby. It turns out, 7 years ago, Rob saw the film “Message in the Gyre,” which inspired him to use his time in retirement and make a difference. “It graphically shows the plight of the albatrosses in the Pacific ocean, feeding plastic to their young having mistaken it for food, with tragic results.” And it was a turning point for Rob.
“I’ve been doing cleans ever since and use my artworks, created with the litter, to campaign and try to reduce the plastic entering the ocean in the first place,” he says. The method of sorting the plastic came out of Rob’s desire to create a sculpture of an Easter Island statue. “I realized that it would require me collecting large quantities of plastic fragments so I designed a sifting apparatus to help me do it.”
Some of Rob’s plastic findings turned out to be historical pieces
The process of sifting the litter brought very revealing findings. Rob said that “It shows of our attachment to plastic over the years and the problems it was creating in terms of marine litter.” Each year, for the last 4 years, Rob does one big session of sorting plastic. Most importantly, he puts his interesting finds on social media and it has grabbed everyone’s attention.
Among many incredible findings, one came on Valentine’s Day and was added to Rob’s “romantic imagines” story. “It was a rather beautiful, ’80s-styled, wave-worn, ladies’ plastic beach sandal,” Rob recounts, “and on the sole was imprinted ‘Made in Brazil.’” He still has the sandal today, and it sparked an interest in collecting plastic beach items. “I now have dozens of plastic beach shoes, no pairs!”
Rob has been putting his quarantine time to use and sorting the microplastics at home
Rob says that marine plastic pollution is a global problem and it gets worse because plastic never biodegrades. “The plastic circulating in the oceans breaks up into smaller and smaller pieces. This doesn’t reduce the volume, but increases the number of pieces and makes it much harder to remove.” The sand on the beaches is now laced with tiny microplastics almost too small to see.
Most importantly, “these plastic particles are poisonous to small sea creatures, when they ingest it, it goes straight into the food chain, and we’re at the top!” And even if sometimes Rob gets down thinking about how badly it all affects marine life, he keeps inspiring others by doing as much as he can. “Staying busy with beach cleans, sorting litter, making artworks, and campaigning helps me to stay positive.”
Some of the little treasures have been floating around in the sea for more than half a century!
Marine plastic pollution is among the greatest wildlife disasters of current times. According to a study run by the World Economic Forum, 8 million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean every year. ABC News has calculated that this number equates to a garbage truck full of plastic being dumped into the ocean every single minute. Plastic has now accumulated in huge quantities and reached the deep-sea areas that were previously untouched by humans.
The main problem with plastic is that it’s almost indestructible, only getting smaller with time but never fully disappearing. According to Lucy Woodall, a principal scientist at Nekton, microplastics are probably in every food we eat: “they’re in my cup of tea. I am breathing them in.” Marine animals ingest plastic particles, get entangled in them and hurt themselves.
This is what people had to say about Rob’s hobby
212Kviews
Share on FacebookWhat an achievement, well done. I understand that this is just a very small amount of microplastics in the grand scheme of things but it is better than not doing anything at all. The patience needed to sort through it all would be immense so kudos to you and anyone else who is/has been doing this. Thank you.
This is the kind of environment hero we should all laud... and learn from! I am becoming increasingly frustrated at the amount of plastic that keeps sneaking into my life even though I am much more aware and cautious about the products I buy now.
Slowly switching to glass storage containers as the plastics ones wear out. (I'm not tossing them in the garbage all at once)
Load More Replies...Wonderful work. But what he shows is that we are damaging the planet beyond fix. Those polyethylene s**t that will never biodegrade is too sad, and revolting. Thank you for showing us, maybe it awakes people.
It's too late to go back before plastic. Life will little by little come to a halt, having these micro particules in our drinking water, the brooks, rivers, lakes and the 🌊 seas/oceans, we are cooked also.
Load More Replies...Wow that is a lot of sorting....very interesting seeing some of what is being picked up, how old it is and how little it has broken down. Its sad to see with some of the comments how little a lot of people care that this is an ongoing problem in our environment. I would have been interested to see some of the art or projects that have been made by Rob with this stuff that highlights this issue of plastic waste in our oceans.
How deep did he have to dig to find these plastics? Or, were they just on the surface of the sand?
It is such a sad indictment of our careless disregard for our planet. All those poor marine animals! Let’s face it, how much of this c**p is in OUR food chain and we are oblivious? Hats off to this man and all who are doing similar work in trying to clean up this mess.
So you're telling me that a lego container from japan capsized and spilled its contents into the ocean and the parts that were spilled were all NAUTICAL THEMED???? Yo the universe is hilarious.
Beaches, parks, hiking trails, campsites -- it's astonishing how people get out to "enjoy nature and are stupid enough to trash it.
Awkward... He dries the litter on plastic sheets, puts them in plastic bags, sorts them out in plastic boxes... Ahem...
What does he do with it though? Throwing them out wouldn't really do much good :/
Those hundreds of kids that lost there flippers in the beach while playing with legos...horrifying
if i ever get to this point in my life i'm going to leap off a bridge. People in 3rd world countries must think we are nuts.
Curious what posting about it means for someone then
Load More Replies...What an achievement, well done. I understand that this is just a very small amount of microplastics in the grand scheme of things but it is better than not doing anything at all. The patience needed to sort through it all would be immense so kudos to you and anyone else who is/has been doing this. Thank you.
This is the kind of environment hero we should all laud... and learn from! I am becoming increasingly frustrated at the amount of plastic that keeps sneaking into my life even though I am much more aware and cautious about the products I buy now.
Slowly switching to glass storage containers as the plastics ones wear out. (I'm not tossing them in the garbage all at once)
Load More Replies...Wonderful work. But what he shows is that we are damaging the planet beyond fix. Those polyethylene s**t that will never biodegrade is too sad, and revolting. Thank you for showing us, maybe it awakes people.
It's too late to go back before plastic. Life will little by little come to a halt, having these micro particules in our drinking water, the brooks, rivers, lakes and the 🌊 seas/oceans, we are cooked also.
Load More Replies...Wow that is a lot of sorting....very interesting seeing some of what is being picked up, how old it is and how little it has broken down. Its sad to see with some of the comments how little a lot of people care that this is an ongoing problem in our environment. I would have been interested to see some of the art or projects that have been made by Rob with this stuff that highlights this issue of plastic waste in our oceans.
How deep did he have to dig to find these plastics? Or, were they just on the surface of the sand?
It is such a sad indictment of our careless disregard for our planet. All those poor marine animals! Let’s face it, how much of this c**p is in OUR food chain and we are oblivious? Hats off to this man and all who are doing similar work in trying to clean up this mess.
So you're telling me that a lego container from japan capsized and spilled its contents into the ocean and the parts that were spilled were all NAUTICAL THEMED???? Yo the universe is hilarious.
Beaches, parks, hiking trails, campsites -- it's astonishing how people get out to "enjoy nature and are stupid enough to trash it.
Awkward... He dries the litter on plastic sheets, puts them in plastic bags, sorts them out in plastic boxes... Ahem...
What does he do with it though? Throwing them out wouldn't really do much good :/
Those hundreds of kids that lost there flippers in the beach while playing with legos...horrifying
if i ever get to this point in my life i'm going to leap off a bridge. People in 3rd world countries must think we are nuts.
Curious what posting about it means for someone then
Load More Replies...
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