The art of plastic

Sunny days spent building sand castles may lose their luster when your realize those plastic shovels and rakes will one day end up in the ocean. Washed Ashore hopes to draw awareness to the plastic problem with colorful sea creature sculptures made of toys that have washed up on Oregon beaches. Conceived by artist Angela Haseltine Pozzi, the sculptures are around four meters long and three tall.

The Spanish artist Joan Miro (1893-1983) spent his later days on the island of Mallorca. On walks along the beach, the sculptor collected items that had washed ashore and set to work creating monster-like sculptures. Painted brilliant, mostly primary colors, the artworks took on unusual shapes, many of which were life-sized and given human features.

Cologne-based artist HA Schult has become famous for his Trash People sculptures, such as those shown above in a building footprint near Berlin's Friedrichswerder Church. Using compacted trash, including soda bottles, the artist has placed rows of these life-size sculptures in natural environments such as in the desert near the Egyptian pyramids to draw awareness to their blight on landscapes.

Ghana-born artist Ed Franklin Gavua has made a name for himself creating Yiiiiikakaii masks out of waste. "My art work is used to create awareness for people to rethink how the waste they or their community makes, is used," he told DW. The masks, which usually take about a day to make, are unique and contain only materials that had originally been tossed away.

Canadian Robert Bezeau built this fortress on Isla Colon, the main island of Bocas del Toro province in Panama. With medieval elements, the castle is made of around 40,000 recycled plastic PET bottles stuffed inside a steel frame and cemented over. Decorating its facade are artworks illustrating how the world's oceans are being polluted.

Plastic in our oceans is not only something that artists have been concerned with; clothing companies as well are making concerted efforts to reduce waste. The sportswear company Adidas found one unique way to recycle the rubbish that already exists with its Adidas x Parley line of shoes, which launched in 2016. The sneakers are decorated with yarn made of reused plastic fishing nets.

Dealing with the problem of plastic has long been on the EU's agenda. In 2011, the work Plastic Bag Monster, comprising 40,000 used plastic bags and 7,500 plastic cups, was put up in front of the European Commission headquarters in Brussels. Many member states have since taken steps to ban the use of plastic bags. A draft law, if passed, could see the body banning single-use plastic like straws.