Chelsea Giovinazzo, Year 11 student, designed a dress partially made from recycled plastic bags to highlight the perilous dilemma of plastics in our oceans and environment. The dress was made for the unit “Design for Futures” which focuses on sustainability through repair, repurpose and recycling. Displayed in the school library, the dress seeks to drive awareness of the risks from plastic to our global waterways and ecosystems.
Chelsea was motivated to act by the frightening statistic that on average each year, 8 million metric tonnes of plastic goes into the ocean with plastic bottles and plastic bags being among the main contributors. These plastics significantly harm marine life and living ecosystems as the plastics become entwined with or consumed by sea life. The turquoise and blue fabric draped over the recycled plastic shopping bags represents the marine life trapped with the plastic in the ocean.
This unique and fashionable dress is woven with an important sustainability message while also re-using and re-purposing an all too common item, the plastic bag.
Chelsea’s mission was to increase reuse and recycling of plastic products to decrease the amount of plastic manufactured and discarded each year. We can all help her with this.
Felicity Maher
Sustainability Officer
