Plasticus the Plastic Whale Returns to Bywaters

Back in August, we unveiled Plasticus, a 10 metre whale made of plastic that had been collected by Bywaters staff and clients in beach cleans or processed at our facility in Bow.

After a successful national tour in partnership with Sky TV, Plastics has now returned to Bywaters.

Raising Awareness of Single-Use Plastic Pollution

With single use plastics proving to be an alarming concern, Bywaters and Sky teamed up to address the growing problem by raising awareness throughout the country of the amount of plastic we’re putting into the world’s oceans each day.

Fighting single-use plastic waste and ocean plastic pollution is something Bywaters has long been committed to, and touring Plasticus around the UK has been a fantastic way to bring the issue to national attention.

The Urgency of the Ocean Plastic Crisis

The whale was created to emphasise the severity of plastic pollutants in the ocean – with its 250kg weight representing the amount of plastic we release into our oceans every second.

This equates to a 8 million tonnes per year and means that unless we change our ways, plastic with outweigh fish in the sea by 2050.

Plasticus’ UK Tour

To raise awareness of this problem, Plasticus has journeyed around Britain with Sky Ocean Rescue, stopping off over 12 locations to greet members of the public, who in return they were offered the opportunity to name the sculpture.

The materials to make the whale were provided by Bywaters from plastics collected in our regular beach cleans in the South east, as well as waste from businesses and households in London that was processed at our Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Bow.

Plasticus has finished its national tour and is now back at Bywaters’ head office in Bow after a successful two-week trip, having been seen by half a million people and drawing their attention to the need to reduce plastic use in society.

Sky and Bywaters’ Commitment to Reducing Ocean Plastics

Bywaters was proud to make Plasticus for Sky Ocean Rescue, with both companies doing everything possible to tackle this issue by raising awareness throughout the UK.

Sky’s Chief Executive is Ready for the “fight”

Jeremy Darroch, Sky’s Chief Executive said to Sky News that the name Plasticus “captures the idea of a fight” against plastic pollution in our oceans, and went on to add:

“We have got to do something to improve and reduce the number of plastics that are flowing into our oceans and damaging marine life, affecting our coastline. That’s what this campaign’s all about.”

Bywaters’ Head of Sustainability Suggests More Sustainable Living

With Plasticus resting with us here at Bywaters, it’s a great reminder of what we need to do as a company and the work we need to continue doing to inspire more people to address this growing problem as promptly as possible.

Our head of sustainability, Edward van Reenan, spoke to Sky News about actions that everyone can take to help. He said that the easiest way for us all to reduce our consumption of single-use plastic was to cut down on plastic bottles:

“Using a water bottle for life is a nice, easy way people can reduce the amount of plastic they’re consuming,”

Ed also went onto elaborate on the benefits of a bag for life in favour of flimsy plastic bags, saying:

“it’ll make a big impact when you scale that up across a whole society.”

Read More About Plasticus’ UK Tour

Bwaters were thrilled to be involved in this campaign, and if you want to find out more about what Plasticus accomplished, you can find out more about Plasticus and how to be a part of the solution to the single-use plastics problem at Sky Ocean Rescue’s website.