Jackie Sewell and Ali Elly have been friends for years, sharing a mutual passion to raise awareness of the harmful effects of plastic pollution on sea life, the environment generally and the benefits of recycling.
Exhibits will include a large fishing net created from plastic bags, ‘beautiful’ photographs of sand under a microscope showing grains of plastic, containers with collections of waste from local beaches and marine drawings and paintings.
There will be an opportunity to complete a quiz to encourage people of all ages to think about how they can help, including leaving a pledge, if they wish, about how they plan to change habits to reduce single-use plastic.
The exhibition follows the very successful No Time for Waste events at the Linskill Centre over the past two years, led by Jackie, who runs Buy the Kilo at Tynemouth Station, last year supported by Ali who specialises in scientific marine illustrations.
Jackie, who has lived in North Tyneside all of her life, explained: “The two events at the Linskill Centre created so much interest and brought together so many environmentally conscious people, that we thought an exhibition would be a great follow on to continue this important conversation. The exhibition venue is ideal, overlooking the river, sea and coastline which are all impacted by pollution.”
As a regular sea swimmer, Jackie began collecting sand from her wet suit which was then examined under a microscope.
“This showed grains of plastic which were actually beautiful in among the sand, which obviously has a very harmful impact on sea life.”
Ali, who lives in Northumberland, and regularly organises beach clean-ups, said: “Whether we like it or not, plastic is there but if everyone just changes their habits in a small way we can make a real difference.”
In its seven years of existence Jackie’s Buy the Kilo shop (open Thursday to Sunday) has displayed more than 60 exhibitions on its wall gallery by environmental artists.