www.waste is a Worm workshop about the worldwide environmental problem of plastic pollution. Focusing on recycling, the session thinks about the 'What', 'Who' and 'Where' that are affected by the consumption habits, economics and politics involved in the plastic recycling industry.

www.waste is on Saturday 30/6/18 12-2pm, free for all and held at The Cafe Gallery, Peak Art in the Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre (address below).

In summer 2017, China announced it would stop taking the West's waste for recycling, in a campaign against yang laji or “foreign garbage”.

With informal group chats and collectively reading accessible, short news articles, we will navigate:

- The meaning behind China's joint agreement with the UN to fight plastic pollution
- The impact of the West's waste on the ecologies elsewhere on the planet
- Complexities and propaganda - how environmental impacts are used by some (more economically-developed) nations to paint a certain image of 'developing' countries
- How we should not see recycling as a fix to our single-use consumption
- How to adapt to a lifestyle of re-usable materials: cut down on waste, even recyclable waste

The workshop is part of the public programme for SURPLUS at Peak Art, London, by the artists May Hands and Sean Roy Parker.

"SURPLUS​ brings together artists May Hands and Sean Roy Parker in a collaborative exploration of natural and synthetic detritus. The exhibition has been conceived as a living installation where the gallery will function as a site of reflection, development and engagement on issues of sustainable practice, responding to the local Elephant & Castle environment and its residents. ​SURPLUS​ will also constitute the inaugural exhibition of new itinerant gallery The Café who will be hosted by Peak in recognition of the increasingly precarious gallery landscape in London."

SURPLUS, 21 Jun 2018 -- 01 Jul 2018
PEAK Art
340a Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre
London, SE1 6TE

Please email hello@thecafe.gallery to participate in this session for free!