As part of Wandsworth Council’s continued efforts to become more sustainable, they recently launched ‘Single Use Plastic’ – a collaborative project which saw children from over 30 primary schools work with a professional artist to create works using single-use plastics, collected from their homes. This work was then displayed at Southside Shopping Centre as part of a public exhibition. As a local organisation, as well as a B-Corp committed to environmental causes, White Light (WL) was approached to support the project.

Single Use Planet featured work created by hundreds of year 4 and 5 pupils from more than 50 primary classes across Wandsworth; with the main focal pieces being giant jellyfish created out of discarded plastic. The workshops to create the pieces were led by artist Blake C Joshua, who introduced students to ideas around climate change and how plastic effects our oceans. It also encouraged them to look at plastics and waste as material from which they can create something new, rather than it being thrown away. 

Blake required some lights to illuminate the artwork on display and Wandsworth Council’s Arts and Culture service approached the company to see if they could support. WL was only happy to oblige, and supplied a range of uplighters which became an integral part of the exhibition and helped showcase its message.

WL’s Managing Director Bryan Raven comments: “As seen by both our B-Corp and ISO14001 accreditation, we are a company that is taking affirmative action when it comes to reducing our carbon footprint; as well as ensuring we make a positive social impact with the work we do. Single Use Planet combined both of these aims: a series of local schools wanting to highlight the impact of plastic usage. When we were approached by the Arts team, we knew immediately we wanted to get involved and it was genuinely inspiring to see the ‘next generation’ creatively tackle this ever-growing issue’.

The project was part of Wandsworth Council’s work to engage with young people around climate change and make the borough more sustainable. It was facilitated by the council and the Royal College of Art in partnership with Kids against Plastic and hosted by Southside Shopping Centre.  The exhibition was opened by the Mayor of Wandsworth, Jeremy Ambache and was attended by Councillor Judi Gasser, cabinet member for the environment, who gave a speech. Also in attendance were the students who created the pieces, teachers, Blake C Joshua, the Mayor of Wandsworth and senior council members and officers. 

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