A first meeting in Nongpho at a noodle stand, from left: Alfred Banze, Jiandyin, Christine.

First text sketch for a printed flyer:
Social Plastic in Nongpho

Plastic waste has become a huge problem, even in Thailand. Especially the one way packaging is piling up to mountains of garbage all over the world. The plastic takes centuries to decompose by itself. Due to the countless mixed forms of the materials, recycling is only possible to a limited extent. Burning releases extremely toxic gases. Oceans, rivers and the soil are polluted by microscopic plastic particles. Now scientists have discovered plastic in the bodies of all the people they’ve examined. Plastic is a danger to all of us.

„Social Plastic“ is a joint project of the artist groups Baan Noorg Collaborative Arts & Culture (Nongpo, Thailand), Camping Akademie e.V.  (Berlin, Germany) and Jatiwangi Art Factory (Jatiwangi, Indonesia). It takes place from November 15th to December 6th 2018 in Nongpo.

We invite you to think together about how to avoid plastic waste. The big changes start on a small scale, at your own table. We organize roundtables and do-it-yourself workshops in the neighborhood, in the temple, in schools, businesses and businesses. We are seaching for initiatives which already working on the problem and would like to cooperate. Exactly one week, we want to collect all the plastic waste from Nongpho, to see how much it really is. Then the real work begins: How do we get rid of the garbage? Are there any recycling companies in the region? How must the plastic waste be separated correctly? Can we burn plastic ultra hot and „clean“?

How was it in the past, without plastic? Please ask your grandmothers and grandfathers, how did you pack food before? We want to think about using old techniques and create new ones. We collect the ideas and try to implement them in Nongpho. Nongpho without plastic waste! A dream? There are now local communities around the world that have chosen to take this step. And there are more and more! All our research results will be compiled on an international website where other communities can inform and network.

By the way: We, the artists Ji & Yin from Nongpho, Tina & Alfred from Germany and Ginggi & Anna from Indonesia are just as at the beginning with our questions on the subject of plastics as everyone else in Nongpho.