When you approach Hong Kong by sea, it’s storied skyline off in the distance isn’t the first thing that catches your eye – it’s all the floating garbage. 12.7 million tonnes of waste is dumped into the oceans each year. 185 tonnes of that was cleaned off a single beach on Hong Kong’s coastline – the rest of the beaches suffer similar situations. Despite this issue, Hong Kong has been producing more waste each year for the past decade – with little effort from the government to try to clean up the issue or motivate the city to improve recycling behaviors. (Source: South China Morning Post).

Greenpeace wanted to draw attention to the problem in a way that would help Hong Kong’s legislators experience it firsthand.

Working with Taiwanese artist Hung Yi-chen, Greenpeace made soap infused with the ‘essence’ of Hong Kong beaches. Each bar was made from the pollution collected from 10 different beaches, ranging from microplastic, plastic bags, plastic utensils, food packaging, plastic lids, plastic straw, Styrofoam, medical waste, fruit packaging, among other varietals.

On April 24, 2018, 30 council members each received a hand delivered bar of Polluted Soap specific to the garbage found on beaches in their district and a letter asking them to stop washing their hands of the problem.

Out on the streets, Pop-up stalls around the city displayed each of the 10 varieties of Polluted Soap as part of a fundraising drive to create awareness and support amongst the population.