“Useless Utensils” was created as part of a collaboration with AZRAQ. The hospitality sector is one of the biggest contributors to plastic pollution globally. The majority of these utensils are thrown away after just one use. In 2016, Worldcentric.org estimated that 40 billion plastic utensils were used every year in the United States alone. The #uselessutensils campaign brought awareness to how easily we accept useless utensils. It also inspired hospitality outlets to ditch the useless utensils or started charging for a more environmentally friendly option that allowed the customers to pay if they really needed it rather than giving it with every order.

Over 30,000 plastic utensils were collected from participating F&B outlets and drop off locations during the six-week campaign and handed over to me as well we partnered schools to turn the “trash into treasure”.

I wanted to create a piece that not only shows the uselessness of the utensils but also show the effects that these utensils have on the environment and how of our habits are threatening the health of the ocean as well as our own. Every second breath we take is because of a healthy ocean, yet we pollute the ocean with our single-use habits. Many of these utensils, as well as other single-use items, makes their way into our oceans and mistaken for food by marine life. This can be fatal to many of them. Another threat I wanted to highlight was overfishing and how this was leading to the proliferation of jellyfish in our oceans.

The art piece is designed to represent a jellyfish made from the useless utensils and is also a functional lamp. Shining some light on a very important topic, that we need to take action on.

I was awarded the People’s Choice Award, voted by the public for this art piece.

Title: Useless Utensils

Dimensions: 440mm x 400mm x 1400mm*

Medium: Mixed Medium( Wire, single-use plastic utensils, fishing line and acrylic paint)

About the author, Mariska

Hi and welcome! My name is Mariska. I am originally from South Africa, but now call the world my home. I am an artist, designer, environmentalist, podcast host and speaker.

I started the Mama Earth Talk podcast in 2018 to share some of the things that I learned about just how easy it can be to reduce your impact on the environment. This then quickly grew into a forum that showcases the amazing things that many people are doing to make the planet better, and further into a source of hope and inspiration for many. A few of the amazing guests include Zero Waste Queen, Bea Johnson, Claude Silver, Kathryn Kellogg and zero waste chef Max La Manna.

If you do not already I urge you to follow me and my journey on social media (@designbymariska), and to refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle and rot your own waste using the handy tips I post!