Honorable Mention / 2022 / Press / Nature/Environmental

Ocean Plastic Pollution

  • Photographer
    Agung Parameswara, Indonesia

About eight million metric tons of plastics are thrown into the ocean every year. By 2050 it is estimated that the weight of plastics in the oceans will exceed the weight of all marine life, and microplastics are already being ingested by fish and starting to appear in the human food chain. In Bali, the northwest monsoon brings vast amounts of this plastic to world-famous beaches. The kinds of trash that wash up cover almost all consumer products, from toothpaste tubes to flip flops and disposable packaging.

My name is Agung Parameswara, a Bali-based freelance photographer focusing on sustainability, social-cultural, travel, and documentary. Agung received summa cum laude for his dissertation in the doctoral program for Economic Science at Udayana University, Indonesia. Agung frequently works to document plastic waste pollution and sustainability issues in Indonesia.