Villa Almone, residenza ufficiale dell’ambasciatore tedesco in Italia
e MAXXI – Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo

Installation of 38 plastic logs in various heights mounted on iron plates measuring 50 x 50 x 0.3 cm

The smallest plastic particles from waste packaging material are pressed together by a heated steel tube to form square ‘tree trunks’ of different lengths. The height of the trunks ranges from 100 to 230 cm. The plastic logs are attached to iron plates.

«Defined as smaller than 5mm in size, micro-plastics have also been found underground in limestone aquifers in Illinois, US, at a level of 15 particles per litre. This type of groundwater source provides about a quarter of the world’s drinking water.
Other recent studies have found micro-plastics in bottom-living creatures and sediments taken from the North Sea and the Barents Sea. High concentrations were also found in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and along the Mediterranean coast of Spain.
Micro-plastics are shed by synthetic clothing, vehicle tyres and the spillage of plastic pellets used by manufacturers. The physical breakdown of plastic litter also creates them. Rain washes them into rivers and the sea, but they can also be blown by the wind and end up in fields when treated sewage waste is used as fertiliser.».

The Guardian Micro-plastic pollution revealed ‘absolutely everywhere’ by new research.