Waste Art Gets Trashy

Looks like the old adage really is true, as German artist HA Schult is taking one man’s trash and turning it into artistic treasure. Described as an ‘eco-art pioneer’, since 1996 Schult has made 1,000 ‘trash people’ from crushed cans, electronic waste and other materials, and installed them in places such as Red Square and the Pyramids in Giza. His trash figures, often placed in picturesque countryside locations, aim to draw attention to mankind’s intense consumption of resources and its effects on the planet. Even if you don’t appreciate the artistic merit of his work – like filling St Mark’s Square in Venice with old newspapers – at least it’s not going to landfill!

Killing off Pollution

The debate over waste fines versus incentives has taken a turn for the extreme in China, with authorities announcing that serious polluters could face the death penalty. In a curiously-worded statement, official news agency Xinhua quoted the government as saying: “With more precise criteria for convictions and sentencing, the judicial explanation provides a powerful legal weapon for law enforcement, which is expected to facilitate the work of judges and tighten punishments for polluters…All force should be mobilised to timely uncover law-breaking clues of environmental pollution.”

Enforcement of environmental regulations is notoriously lax in China, but you would be forgiven for thinking the authorities have now swung slightly too far in the other direction. If this is anything to go by, we wouldn’t be surprised if first-time litterers receive the ‘lenient’ punishment of life in jail. Still, at least they’re taking the issue of pollution seriously.

Tagging Along

Here’s some food for thought: if you can’t afford a wedding dress, why not make one… out of bread tags? Well, that’s what one woman has done. Stephanie Watson, a fashion designer from rural Victoria, Australia, started collecting the plastic tags around the time she met her partner, and the pair decided to get married once she had enough to make a dress.

It only took 10 years for Watson to collect the 10,000 tags needed to create ‘Nadine’ (the dress), and she is now ‘an honest woman’. She describes her unique wedding gown as ‘a little uncomfortable’, but we’re sure it was a sacrifice worth making in the name of, er, fashion.

Picture: Constructing Nadine

Flipping Fantastic

People often complain that recycling’s rules make it too complicated, but it turns out it’s so easy that even a sea lion can get it right! Blair Drummond Safari Park in Scotland has trained the slippery creatures to put bottles into recycling boxes as part of Recycle Week (17-23 June). If this scheme is a success, Resource speculates that penguins separating paper from plastic recyclate could soon be hitting the streets.

We think there’s one slight missed trick in this admirable training feat, though: it would have been more impressive if the animals had to choose between a green recycling box and a general waste bin. Indeed, it is not clear whether the sea lions have gone back to discarding their rubbish in the sea now that Recycle Week is over…