Since early July, Hawai‘i Wildlife Fund and volunteers have been working to fill a 40-foot Matson container with blue and white plastic for Jason Klimoski and Lesley Chang of StudioKCA in Brooklyn, New York.

The couple plans to build a 30-foot. blue whale sculpture made entirely out of the collected plastic marine debris.

The whale sculpture will be installed as part of a triennial event in the town of Bruges, Belgium, in May 2018.

“The Bruges Whale is meant to spark conversation and raise awareness about the tremendous amount of plastic waste that is ending up in our oceans, hopefully helping the nearly 2,000,000 anticipated visitors reconsider what and how we consume, package, and dispose of plastic,” said Klimoski. “Special thanks to Hawai‘i Wildlife Fund for their tremendous effort over the course of the last several months, helping us collect blue, white and grey plastic to build Skyscraper, or ‘the Bruges Whale for the 2018 Bruges Triennial.”

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In total, 17 Hawai‘i Island cleanup events were coordinated by HWF to fill the shipping container with approximately 19,212 of plastics while it was stationed at the Wai‘ōhinu Transfer Station in Ka‘ū.

Additionally, Surfrider Foundation volunteers on Kaua‘i collected 4,000 pounds of plastic debris that were added to the container once it reached Hilo, courtesy of a Young Brothers gratis-shipping grant that was received by HWF.

Matson Navigation was another supporter of the project by extending the time allowed to fill the container for free. Kona Trans also provided StudioKCA with a discounted hauling rate for the project and the County of Hawai‘i’s Department of Environmental Management provided HWF space to store the 40 ft. container for 12 weeks as volunteers contributed to fill it with plastic debris, making this effort an especially collaborative project by local businesses and residents alike.

The container will ship all 9.5 tons of marine-debris plastics from Hawai’i Island and Kaua‘i to Brooklyn from the port of Hilo on Wednesday Oct. 4, 2017. The material will later be shipped to Belgium.

“We are thrilled to able to work with artists to create awareness installations, like this Blue Whale project, and simultaneously divert some of this plastic pollution from our island landfills,” said Megan Lamson, HWF Hawai’i Island program director. “Since 2003, HWF and volunteers have removed nearly 225 tons of debris from the shores of Hawai’i Island. Whatever cannot be recycled, generally ends up in landfills. Innovative projects that include reuse, art, research and recycling are always preferred!”

HWF is a small nonprofit conservation organization founded in 1996 to conserve native wildlife. During its 21-year existence, HWF and volunteers have removed a total of 260 tons of marine debris from the shores of Hawai’i Island (86% by weight), Maui, Midway and the French Frigate Shoals.

In 2017 alone, HWF and volunteers have removed 63,343 pounds of marine debris from Hawai’i Island and Maui during 51 community cleanup events. The majority of HWF’s marine debris removal work is conducted by volunteer labor, with financial support from the federal government (NOAA’s Marine Debris Program), local businesses (Matson Navigation, Kona Surf Film Festival, Kona Brewers Festival, Norwex, etc.), and individual donations from around the world.

For more information on the project or how to get involved with HWF, email [email protected], call (808) 769-7629 or check out the HWF website.

For information about Klimoski and Chang, visit www.studiokca.com.

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