This all looks pretty inviting, doesn’t it? A nice frothy lager, inviting oysters…but then you look a bit closer. You realise the beer is topped with styrofoam balls and the oysters are nothing but saran wrap. Wait a minute, it’s all plastic!

(photo by Morten Bentzon)

This Microplastic Series is a collection of photos produced for the Copenhagen Zoo, put together by food branding and communications company Sweet Sneak Studio. The studio is better known for creating marketing campaigns for large companies such as dairy producer Arla Foods but the zoo wanted to go in another direction, and demonstrate the dangers that single-use plastic pose to animals. They teamed together to create this collection of seamingly delicious images depicting an underlying ugly threat to not only the species of our environment, but also to us. Sweet Sneak Studio wanted to demonstrate the real invasive nature of microplastics in the collection that was made available to the public last year.

Plastic waste is becoming an ever important topic when it comes to climate change and the necessity of adopting sustainable practices. When plastic waste is discarded off, it doesn’t disappear, they just become smaller. These microplastics may be small but they pose a massive threat; it ends up in our food. In fact, the average person consumes as many as 52,000 microplastic particles a year, completely unaware. You may have already been aware that these microplastics end up in the oceans, in the fish we eat, but you may have been less aware of the fact they also end up in other products we consume, like beer, salt and honey.

Check out the collection of photos @FastCompany