Photographer James Whitlow Delano's powerful documentary series "Drowning in Plastic" reveals the devastating impact of humanity's plastic addiction on our planet, showcased at the 2020 Visa pour l'Image festival. The exhibition exposes how the world has produced a staggering 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic by 2017, equivalent to one ton for every person on Earth.
Delano begins his visual narrative by examining everyday consumer culture in Tokyo, where he resides. A simple visit to a home improvement store becomes an overwhelming immersion into the spectrum of plastic products that define modern life. The shelves are packed with carbon-fiber materials, Teflon-coated items, artificial plastic turf, and faux-wood plastic flooring. Shiny plastic rice cookers and coffee makers compete for space with plastic plants nestled in plastic pots, while personal care products including shampoo, soap, skin lotions, and makeup come packaged in every imaginable color of plastic.
The plastic invasion extends far beyond household goods into our clothing, with approximately 60 percent of our garments now made from synthetic fibers that are essentially plastic. Store aisles stretch endlessly with cheap polyester, Lycra, and acrylic clothing designed for every age group from infancy to old age, hanging in neat rows on display racks. The consumer experience concludes with shoppers patiently waiting in lines, pushing plastic shopping carts, preparing to place their purchases on plastic conveyor belts to be scanned by clerks using plastic-encased cash registers, paid for with plastic credit cards, before stuffing everything into single-use plastic bags for the journey home.
After decades of excessive single-use plastic consumption, the planet is literally drowning in discarded plastic waste. Of the 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic produced globally, approximately 6.3 billion metric tons currently sit in landfill sites, while an additional 8 million metric tons enter our oceans annually. This massive ocean contamination occurs because roughly 2 billion people live within 48 kilometers (30 miles) of coastal areas.
Plastic contamination has reached every corner of the Earth, from the most remote wilderness areas to the deepest ocean trenches. In 2019, researchers made the alarming discovery of microplastics in Arctic ice at concentrations higher than those found in the surrounding Arctic Ocean waters. That same year, explorers found plastic debris in the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, the deepest known point on the planet. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a massive accumulation of floating debris, consists of 46 percent plastic ghost fishing nets abandoned or lost by commercial fishing operations.
The environmental impact extends throughout the marine food chain, starting with zooplankton, the microscopic organisms that form the foundation of ocean ecosystems. These tiny creatures are consuming microplastics and microfibers from synthetic clothing, mistaking them for food because plastic does not biodegrade like natural materials. Instead, plastic breaks down into increasingly smaller pieces that remain plastic forever. As zooplankton consume these toxic particles, they eat less nutrient-rich food while absorbing harmful toxins from the plastic materials.
These toxins accumulate as they move up the food chain through predation, with the highest concentrations affecting top predators including sharks, toothed whales, seals, seabirds, and ultimately humans. According to a 2015 Australian study, 90 percent of seabirds are now eating plastic debris. Some seabirds have been discovered with so much plastic lodged in their stomachs that no space remains for actual food, causing them to slowly starve to death.
Delano's documentary series explores this environmental plague of plastic waste that impacts the developing world most severely, while emphasizing that the challenge of plastic waste disposal affects every nation on Earth. Through his compelling visual storytelling, the photographer brings urgent attention to one of the most pressing environmental crises of our time, demonstrating how our everyday consumer choices contribute to a global catastrophe that threatens marine life, human health, and the planet's ecological balance.
