Do not eat! These popsicles are made of polluted water -- including some vaguely identified chunks. They were created by three design students as part of their graduation project in Taiwan, to highlight the high level of pollution in their local water systems.
courtesy Hong Yi-chen
The students -- Hong Yi-chen, Guo Yi-hui, and Zheng Yu-di of the National Taiwan University of the Arts -- collected water samples from various locations in Taiwan and then froze them into popsicles. They later created resin replicas of the results, photographed here.
courtesy Hong Yi-chen
"The water comes from 100 different polluted water sources in Taiwan, ranging from rivers to ports to ditches," says Hong Yi-chen, one of the authors of the project.
courtesy Hong Yi-chen
Along with suspiciously colored waters (due to waste oil and industrial dye), the popsicles contain bugs, dirt, dead fish, cigarette butts, nets, oil and plastic waste in various forms, such as wrappers, bottle caps and packaging.
courtesy Hong Yi-chen
Around 90 percent of the solid waste in the popsicles is plastic. Each year, around 8 million metric tons of plastic waste are dumped into oceans and waterways -- the equivalent of a truckload every minute, according to the World Economic Forum.
courtesy Hong Yi-chen
"We had this idea because we believe clean water resources for everyone is a very important thing," says Hong Yi-chen.
courtesy Hong Yi-chen
The students also designed 100 wrappers, one for each water source, and compiled a list of the supposed ingredients of each treat.
courtesy Hong Yi-Chen
The replicas were made using hard resin, but closely resemble the original popsicles.
courtesy Hong Yi-chen
The original water samples used to create the ice popsicles.
