These Activists Are Trying to Get a Giant Trash Patch in the Pacific Recognized as a Country

The Trash Isles have their own currency and passport

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It’s no secret that there’s a huge amount of plastic garbage floating around in the North Pacific. But in a desperate attempt to fix the problem, a group of activists are trying a new approach—lobbying the United Nations to recognize one mass of trash as an actual country, so that the world’s real governments will have to help to clean it up.

Titled “Trash Isles,” the campaign is a scathing stunt—and it goes deep.

The brainchild of a London-based creative duo, it kicked off with a letter to the UN formally requesting recognition as a nation state, signed by two partner organizations in the campaign—nonprofit network The Plastic Oceans Foundation and publisher LADBible, which helped bring the campaign to life by signing on big name endorsers like Judi Dench and Mo Farah, and developing content for its popular social channels.

Take these videos, for example.

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