Raising Awareness to Protect the Ocean: A “Underwater World” Made from 100,000 Discarded Bottle Caps in New Taipei

▲ An underwater world curtain made from tens of thousands of bottle caps (Photo / Provided by New Taipei City Cultural Affairs Bureau)

Travel Center / Comprehensive Report

Tiny bottle caps can also create an ocean world. To celebrate Earth Day on April 22, the New Taipei City Cultural Affairs Bureau used 100,000 bottle caps to create a stunning underwater world exhibition — “Under the Sea: The Truth That Can’t Be Covered Up.” The exhibition is being held at the Beautiful Yong’an Life Museum in New Taipei City from now until June 7.

All the artworks in the “Under the Sea: The Truth That Can’t Be Covered Up” exhibition are made from recycled bottle caps. The venue is divided into an underwater world area and an art creation zone. Visitors pass through a 2-meter-wide bottle cap curtain to reach the art creation area, where exquisitely crafted bottle cap artworks by domestic artists are on display. The underwater world section features more than 10 colorful marine creatures, including a nearly 3-meter-long whale shark, Taiwan’s unique Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin, and the endangered green sea turtle — all created entirely from recycled bottle caps.

▲ Artist Huang Xinyu used everyday collected discarded bottle caps, thumbtacks, and yarn to create the large-scale installation artwork “Bottle Cap Flowers.” (Photo / Provided by New Taipei City Cultural Affairs Bureau)

The New Taipei City Government Cultural Affairs Bureau stated that the issue of marine waste is far more serious than we imagine. On beaches, you can find all kinds of unexpected trash, such as videotapes, toys, plush dolls, shoes, lighters, and other daily items. Among them, bottle caps not only rank among the top five types of beach litter but also cause many marine animals to die from ingesting them, severely damaging the marine ecosystem. The bureau hopes this exhibition will help people understand the truth about ocean pollution and take action to protect the Earth.