Artists are going to get creative with bags of garbage collected from a clean-up of Jobson’s Cove.Seven artists from the Bermuda Arts Centre at Dockyard will use trash found at the Warwick beach to craft works for a show at the gallery next month, The Secret Life of Plastic.“The trash that they collected will be taken to their studios and sculptures of some sort will be made,” said gallery manager Heidi Cowen.“The group were shown the bite marks on the plastic that were made from fish thinking that it might be food. It was amazing to see how many pieces had been attacked.“There were a total of 15 bags of garbage collected. And we’re sad to report that after a two-hour clean-up there was still more trash left on Jobson’s Cove.”The Bermuda Arts Centre at Dockyard will continue its work, adopting Black Bay off Malabar Island.“Black Bay is terrible, we’ve got everything floating there huge big pieces.“We did Jobson’s because I came across it and tourists are down there all the time and I thought it would be a good idea. But we are adopting Black Bay because it is in our backyard and it not a beach that is cleaned on a regular basis.“So we figure that once a month we will have a clean-up crew so that now the beach will be in pristine condition for when people come up to Dockyard.”Because the beach is at the western end of the Island, the gallery has invited schools to help out.“Two of the artists, Mary Tatem and Marlene Jantzen, are also school teachers in the West end,” said Ms Cowen.“It is the hope that all West end schools will become involved with keeping this beach clean. With the help of the waste management section of the Ministry of Works and Engineering, students will be offered an appreciation of why we should not litter, and how bad plastic is for our oceans.“Is Bermuda’s plastic affecting other countries? Yes it is. Our trash that gets loose into the ocean or litter that is left on the beaches and washed into the sea will eventually end up on another country’s shoreline.”The Secret Life of Plastic opens March 6 at 5.30pm and runs until March 30.To help conserve Black Bay e-mail artcentre[AT]ibl.bm or telephone 234-2809.FACT BOXCourtesy of www.algalita.orgWhy is plastic in the ocean a problem?Plastic does not biodegrade. When something biodegrades, naturally occurring organisms break down natural materials into their simple chemical components. Paper, when it breaks down, becomes carbon dioxide and water. But plastic, a synthetic material, never biodegrades. Plastic goes through a process called photodegradtation, where it is broken down by sunlight into smaller and smaller pieces.Even this degradation process can take a very long time. Estimates of 500 years for a disposable diaper, 400 years for a plastic six-pack ring and 450 years for a plastic bottle have been made.The ocean is especially susceptible to plastic pollution because plastics are carried by currents, which can concentrate the plastic in certain areas and prevent it from washing ashore.Circulating currents in the ocean caused by stable weather patterns are called “gyres”. When plastic is flushed out of a gyre by storms and washes ashore, much of it is mixed into beach sand and can never be recovered.Many marine birds and animals mistakenly eat free-floating plastic. Often these animals cannot distinguish plastic from food. Plastic can never be digested and eating plastic can cause animals to feel full even though they are not actually consuming food. In birds, it has been shown that ingestion of plastics can prevent migrations and reproduction, and can eventually cause starvation and death.Over 80 species of seabirds have been found to ingest plastic. Sea bird chicks are especially vulnerable as they receive high levels of pollution from food brought by their parents.Marine birds and animals can become entangled in plastic nets and fishing lines.In turtles, plastic has been shown to block intestines and make the animals float so they cannot dive for food.How are plastics getting into the ocean?Approximately 100 million containers are shipped annually over the world’s oceans. Frequent severe storms along this route cause the loss of hundreds of containers overboard each year, contributing among other plastics, tens of thousands of shoes and millions of plastic shopping bags.Only about 20 percent of ocean pollution comes from activities at sea. Activities on land contribute most of the remaining 80 percent.Because of their buoyancy and persistence, plastic items contribute disproportionately to the overall impact of marine debris. Most of the debris that either entangles animals or is found in their stomachs is made of plastic.