Meet Lulu
Lulu was a whale, an Orca, she was washed ashore dead on a beach in Scotland in 2016. She was a member of the last remaining Orca pod in UK waters.The pod is in danger of being wiped out.
Lulu was found to have high levels of PCB in her system. PCBs were banned decades ago, but are still prevalent in the oceans, are concentrated in the fat of mammals.
Lulu is sculpture suspended from the ceiling at Stokes at The Lawn.
Designed by Ptolemy Elrington, Lulu is made from bits of plastic and parts from old coffee machines. She serves as a stark reminder the damage plastic is doing to the planet.
Plastic pollution is killing the planet.
8 million tonnes of plastic are discarded into the oceans every year. The plastic accumulates. By 2050 the amount of plastic in the oceans will outweigh the fish. It is hazardous to sea life.
Ten rivers account for 95% of the plastic in the oceans.
The UK was shipping 5000,000 tonnes of plastic to China every year. It was called recycling. This is not recycling, it is dumping waste onto another country.
Plastic is not recycled, it is down-cycling. Glass, steel, aluminium is recycled.
Wood can be reused.
Makushi is an excellent example of wood reused as tables.
The Underdog has reused railway sleepers as tables.
Something every single one of us can do is stop using disposable coffee cups. In the UK, we throw away 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year. These are not made of paper as they first appear. They are paper with a plastic liner, cannot be recycled, go to landfill or incineration, or are thrown in the street.
Stokes are investigating replacing the plastic-lined cups with compostable paper cups.
A step in the right direction, but, what to do with the paper cup once empty of coffee? Unless a compost heap is to hand will go in the waste stream.
Stokes at The Lawn have on sale Frank Green Smart Cup. Ugly, expensive and no one can recall one ever being sold. It lacks the elegance of a KeepCup. And is made of plastic.
Unless targeting office workers with a substantial discount, reusable cups of limited value in reducing waste.
What we have to do is discourage the grab it and go consumer culture that is encouraged by the coffee chains and instead encourage sit and relax with a cup of coffee at the coffee shop. After all what is the hurry? Coffee is a drink, or for that matter tea, to relax with.
The clientele at Stokes do tend to be sit and relax with a coffee or afternoon tea.
Pret a Manger offering filter coffee at 49p a cup if bring own cup for a refill has to be seen in the absence of in-store information and no reusable cups on sale as little more than a clever publicity stunt.
House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee has called for a 25p levy on all disposable coffee cups, the so-called latte levy. This should be implemented at the next Budget, but already the chains are lobbying for the levy not to be introduced.
Please sign the petition calling on Michael Gove to introduce the 25p levy.
As always, it is the indie coffee shops who are leading the way.
What we have to do is discourage the takeaway culture. Compostable paper cups, reusable cups, is merely tackling the symptoms.
We have to encourage relaxing with a cup of coffee at a coffee shop in ceramic or glass. There is then no requirement for a takeaway cup.
If art has nothing to say, then it is not art.
