Bywaters Builds Plastic Wave for Lush Summit 2018

Bywaters were very pleased to be invited to attend the 2018 Lush Summit on the 14^th and 15^th of February. We were also delighted to also to be asked to provide the materials to build a gigantic plastic wave to decorate the venue and set the stage for the event’s speakers.

The summit was a huge success, with campaigners and activists given a fantastic platform to spread the message about the need for increased environmental sustainability and other issues facing the world.

What is the Lush Summit?

The Lush Summit is an annual event that consists of a hotbed of discussion, debate, activism, and action. Campaigners and grassroots voices from across the globe join together for two days each year to share stories, ideas, and initiatives of working to make the world a better place.

The event takes place throughout several ‘spaces’ – including an ‘environmental space’, ‘oceans space’, ‘digital ethics space’, and many more. The Lush Summit aims to have as much impact as possible across a wide range of issues facing the world.

What Happened at the 2018 Summit?

At this year’s event, topics included the environment, human rights, animal rights, and the migrant crisis.

By digitally broadcasting the event via their Lush Player, thousands of other like-minded, internationally based change-makers were able to participate and learn more about the charities and organisations making a difference in 2018.

Speakers at this year’s summit included:

• Satish Kumar: Influential environmental activist and editor-in-chief of Resurgence & Ecologist
• Mara Keisling: Founder and executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality
• Chris Packham: Nature photographer, TV presenter, and animal rights charity campaigner with the RSPB

How did Bywaters Help?

Bywaters supported the 2018 Lush Summit by providing enough of our plastic to build a 2 meter high wave made entirely of plastic to decorate the ‘ocean space’ – while also collaborating on the design of a 12 meter wooden whale carcass (Not to be confused with our recent plastic whale, Plasticus).

Additionally, we also created installations of plastic hanging from the roof to draw attention to the growing problem of ocean plastics and demonstrate to the event’s attendees how easy it is for animals in the ocean to mistake plastic bags floating in the water as jellyfish or food.

Among these decorations in the ‘ocean space’, there were influential talks from deep blue defenders and stunning visual aspects conveyed through installations and galleries.

What was discussed at this year’s Lush Summit?

The topics discussed at the event included:

• Plastic pollution
• Over fishing
• Climate change
• Carbon emissions and the warming of our oceans

With such a wide range of topics being highlighted, the event was a huge success and managed to raise awareness at the same time as bringing people together to drive real change. Speaking of all the areas touched on at the summit, Lush rightly said:

“When it comes to saving our seas there’s an ocean of possibility.”

Why Does Saving the Oceans Mean so Much to Us?

Reducing plastic pollution has been a huge goal of ours, and last year we were fortunate enough to work with Sky TV to raise awareness of the issue. We were delighted to be able to continue our work against ocean plastic at this year’s Lush Summit.

It’s amazing to see the work around the global clean up and its especially rewarding when you see actual progress being made by people on the ground. We see this first hand at our regular beach clean events, such as our recent beach clean in Aberporth and we hope to see others dive into the ocean clean up from all areas of the globe.