US – Times Square Arts and artist Robin Frohardt have collaborated on a food installation using discarded plastic bags.
Named The Plastic Bag Store, the activation features a number of recognisable grocery items including tomatoes and sushi rolls, all created out of repurposed plastic bags collected from the streets of New York. Intended to recreate the look of a traditional grocery store, the project coincides with the ban of single-use plastic in New York.
Aiming to explore the authentic and human potential of mass-produced and man-made items, The Plastic Bag Store takes a humorous approach to the presentation of repurposed plastic. Robin Frohardt says: ‘The Plastic Bag Store is a visually rich, tactile and humorous experience that hopefully encourages a different way of thinking about the foreverness of plastic, the permanence of the disposable, and that there is no 'away' when we throw something out.’
With new retail systems and national laws being put in place to mitigate single-use plastic, companies are rethinking their relationship with waste materials. For more, read Secondary Waste Retail.