The Museum of Beyond imagines a future beyond oil... It's a life without plastics, and yet plastic fragments of our Oil Age lives continue to wash up on the shores of our oceans. The museum sees the present through future eyes, imagining what future generations might make of these plastic objects - and what they will perhaps think about us.

Explore the museum's collections, contribute, enjoy... But, above all, let’s spread the word about reducing our fossil fuel use - including our use of plastics (especially single use items like bottles, cups and tampon applicators) - and taking action now to help stop climate chaos and biodiversity loss. And don't forget to lobby government and corporations for change too - we can't do this by ourselves!

Most of all, let's hope that by thinking about the way we live now, we can begin to imagine how we might create a better future for all life on our planet.

PLASTICS AND OUR OCEANS

An estimated 12.7 million tonnes of plastic end up in our oceans every year, travelling on ocean currents to every part of the globe. These plastics endure in the marine environment indefinitely: items from the birth of plastics are washing up on our shores, virtually unscathed. Our oceans and coastlines are literally choking on plastic.

Disposal of plastics in our oceans is not just harming wildlife now (an estimated 100,000 marine mammals and turtles, and over one million seabirds are dying every year due to entanglement with or ingestion of marine plastics), we are also providing a toxic legacy that may last an eternity. Microplastics can now be found throughout the food chain (from zooplankton to whales), in the air we breathe, at the top of the highest mountains and at the bottom of the deepest oceans. We all now have microplastics in our bodies.

But it's not too late to make changes! We can all make a difference in helping to reduce the plastics in our oceans, and on our planet.
For helpful ideas and action read on...

OIL AND PLASTICS

The overwhelming majority of scientific opinion agrees that fossil fuels must stay buried in the ground in order to prevent calamitous climate change and biodoversity loss.

Yet our Oil Age lifestyles have become ever more dependent on fossil fuels. Despite all that we know, global fossil fuel consumption continues to grow - and so does our production of plastics. We mass-produce billions of plastic items every day (many of which are single use), which contribute to global climate change in their production (they are made from oil) and which last indefinitely in the natural environment. We need a global plastic treaty now and to drastically reduce our use of fossil fuels and plastics in every possible way.

Plastics, like diamonds, are forever...