Plastic pirouettes: Japan’s recycled bottle ballet
The Guardian 23 January 2023 – Plastic pirouettes: Japan’s recycled bottle ballet – in pictures
Richard A Brooks/Agence France Presse
Image: Dancers wear a variety of recycled plastic outfits. Photograph: Richard A Brooks/AFP/Getty Images.
Plastic, a production by Japanese company K-Ballet, draws attention to a global pollution crisis with its unusual set and wardrobe design. Resembling space-age creatures with PET bottles strapped to their bodies, dancers including US guest star Julian MacKay move through a shifting plastic labyrinth.
The process/ photograph captions:
- People in Japan generate a third of the plastic waste produced by those living in the US, according to the OECD, and less than the average for the organisation’s European members.
- Plastic waste has doubled globally in 20 years and only 9% is successfully recycled, according to the OECD group of developed countries.
- A worker from the Shirai Eco centre collects plastic bottles from recycling bins in the Omotesando area of Tokyo. Single-use plastic remains a huge problem in Japan, where even individual pieces of fruit frequently come packaged.
- The bottles are cleaned at the depot in Adachi, northern Tokyo.
- The bottles are then sorted by type.
- The cleaned, sorted bottles are ready to be made into costumes and props for Plastic.
- A set design volunteer punches holes in recycled plastic bottles that are to be used in a plastic wall.
