Rubbish Art

Love it or hate it – modern art never fails to provoke a reaction. While some people can’t get enough, the majority of people tend to think that contemporary art is a load of rubbish. On that note, some clever people have taken this idea one step further and actually created art from rubbish. Aesthetically-pleasing and environmentally friendly…..surely not? The Rainbow Worrier, a boat created from a staggering 5,000 plastic bags, is a fantastic example of using art to raise environmental awareness – even filled with plastic fish in nets to stress how plastic is destroying marine ecosystems. Created by Devon-based outdoor art group ‘Trail’, the piece won the Recycled Art in Landscape Public Choice Award. Who said plastic recycling wasn’t creative?

Another inspired form of waste management is this unique trash sculpture of a polar bear, created from weaved recycled carrier bags as part of the Eden Project near Cornwall. Plastic fantastic indeed!
Instead of using the everyday plastic carrier bag, crushed cans, computer parts and consumer waste are utilised here to create an incredible optical illusion of the ‘shadow’ of two people sitting back-to-back and enjoying a glass of wine. Created by artistic duo Tim Noble and Sue Webster, the sculptures are inspired by rubbish collected from the streets of London, where, once positioned at just the right angle, come to life with animated shadows and crisp, clear outlines.
Former wrecking and salvage expert, Dr Evemor, has created one of the most incredible sculpture parks in the world, ‘Forevertron’, featuring the world’s largest metal sculpture (120 ft by 60 ft and 50 ft tall – weighing 320 tons). Having used pieces of rubbish dating back to Thomas Edison and the Apollo Space Missions, this eccentric artist proves that one person’s trash is most certainly another person’s treasure.
Whilst these artists have interpreted recycling in a creative and often humorous way, waste management remains to be an important modern day issue – if we do not take action and start to be more proactive with our recycling habits, immeasurable damage will be done to our planet. So whether we simply recycle our used waste using a specialist service such as WasteCare waste management, or get our creative juices flowing like these clever folk and create art from rubbish, we can all be doing our bit for the environment.