Minderoo Foundation and Benjamin Von Wong unite to deliver a powerful message at Global Plastics Treaty negotiations

05 Aug 2025 – As delegates gather in Geneva for the resumed fifth session of negotiations toward a Global Plastics Treaty (INC-5.2), Minderoo Foundation has partnered with internationally acclaimed environmental artist Benjamin Von Wong to unveil a striking public installation that underscores the urgency of global action on plastic pollution.

The centerpiece of this collaboration, titled “The Thinker’s Burden,” is a monumental sculpture erected at Place des Nations, the symbolic heart of international Geneva. Designed to provoke reflection and inspire resolve, the artwork confronts delegates and passersby with the weight of inaction and the consequences of delay in tackling the plastic crisis.

“This is not just art – it’s a call to conscience,” Professor Sarah Dunlop, Minderoo Foundation’s Director of Plastic and Human Health, said. “We are here to remind negotiators that the decisions made in Geneva will shape the health of our planet for generations. The Thinker’s Burden represents the moral and environmental weight we all carry – and the opportunity to lift it through bold, legally binding commitments.

“The Global Plastics Treaty presents negotiators with an incredible opportunity to provide universal protection against health harms caused by chemicals in plastic and make plastic polluters pay for this.”

The Thinker’s Burden is a 6-metre-tall sculptural remix of Rodin’s iconic Thinker, created for the INC-5.2 negotiations by Von Wong, in collaboration with SLS Illusions.

In this version, the Thinker cradles a baby, sits atop Mother Earth, and is entwined in a giant strand of DNA – the building block of life – to highlight the growing health and environmental impacts of an unregulated plastic industry on both people and planet.

Crafted from papier mâché, wood, and steel, and covered in living vines, the sculpture will be slowly engulfed by a mounting wave of plastic waste throughout the negotiations – a visual metaphor for the toxic legacy being passed on to future generations.

“Plastic pollution isn’t just an environmental crisis – it’s a public health emergency,” Von Wong said. “From the air we breathe to the food we eat, microplastics and toxic chemicals are entering our bodies, and future generations will inherit the consequences if we fail to act now.

“The Thinker’s Burden is meant to remind us that the true weight of plastic falls on our health – disrupting hormones and threatening children before they’re even born. This is not a distant problem; it is already inside us.”

Von Wong said The Thinker’s Burden was more than a sculpture.

“It’s a visual representation of the growing burden we bear to resolve the plastic pollution crisis for this generation, and all future generations to come. We must act decisively and fight for human health across the entire lifecycle of plastics.

The installation was built by the hands of dozens of volunteers and NGOs who helped Von Wong collect, clean and tie the mountain of plastic waste used for the sculpture.

Von Wong said the “Thinker” carried a baby because the burden of inaction would be borne most heavily by the next generation.

“Every day we fail to negotiate an ambitious treaty is another day we gamble with their health, their safety, and their right to a livable future,” Von Wong said.

“We can no longer separate the fight against plastic pollution from the fight for human health.

“A strong global treaty is not just about protecting oceans or ecosystems – it’s about protecting every human body on this planet.”

Von Wong holds a Guinness World Record for creating the largest supported art installation made from plastic drinking straws, titled “Strawpocalypse.” The sculpture featured a 3.3-metre-tall wave made from more than 168,000 discarded straws.

His work has been featured at marquee events such as the World Economic Forum and COP. He previously created a striking two-and-a-half-storey Biodiversity Jenga tower showcased at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, and a dramatic four-storey Plastic Faucet that highlighted the urgency of plastic crisis for INC-4 in Ottawa.

“Behind the policy debates are human beings – negotiators, parents, children – all vulnerable to the same toxic burden of plastics,” Von Wong said. “I hope my art reminds negotiators what this treaty is really about: creating a legally binding framework that can protect the health and wellbeing of their loved ones.”

Complementing Minderoo Foundation’s world-leading scientific research into the harms that fossil-fuel derived plastics have on human health is its work to change plastic for good, where Minderoo invests in early and growth-stage businesses that bring safer solutions to market, support scientific research to overcome technical barriers in promising new materials, and generate data-driven insights to guide innovation and policy.

To learn more about Minderoo Foundation’s work in changing plastic for good and priorities at INC-5.2 work visit: https://www.globalplastictreaty.com/

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