In the modern world many perfectly shaped materials are thrown away in landfills, which could have been used elsewhere to reduce production of new items and emissions associated with new production. Some creative minds are working to help the environment by creating unique works of art from discarded materials, at all scales. Some do this for sheer pleasure for art and conscience, while others do it on largest possible scales to bring out an all new meaning of the word recycling. Here we have tried to feature arts and creations of such brave minds that have given an all new direction to the concept of trash art and have left us mesmerized with the grandness of their works. Hit the jump to read on for 12 such out of the world creations, we love for their efforts and vastness in form.
Bruce Munro’s Inland Sea
Artist Bruce Munro has reused about one million unwanted compact discs to create a shimmering inland sea at Long Knoll Field in Wiltshire, England. Apart from some local collections, the massive sea used more than 600,000 discarded CDs that were sent from as far away as Brazil and California. The 120sqm carpet of glittering CDs reflects light from the sun and the moon across a 10-acre field.
WHIM Architecture’s Recycled Island
WHIM Architecture are proposing a gigantic recycled island that will be made from plastic waste collected from the North Pacific Gyre. The bold project will not only help clean the oceans, but it might just be a perfect home for climate refugees. Waste will be converted into 4000 square miles of recycled plastic land upon which plastic communities will be built. The habitable area of the island will be designed as an urban setting with a green living environment.
Container City
Several Mexican designers have taken container recycling to a grand scale by creating a “Container City” out of them. The city offers 4500 m2 of urban space about two hours from Mexico City and makes use of 50 metal containers that are recycled into hippie stores, bookstores, art galleries, bars, restaurants, bakeries, juice bars and work and living spaces.
Minnie Evans Bottle Chapel
Constructed as a garden retreat this recycling wonder is located at Airlie Gardens, Wilmington, NC, and has been constructed entirely from recycled bottles, cement and chicken wire by local artist Virginia Wright-Frierson.
Grandma Prisbrey’s Bottle Village
Built by Tressa Prisbrey (better known as Grandma Prisbrey) over a period of 25 years this bottle village is created from recycled beer bottles. The project includes 13 full-size structures, an impressive mosaic walkway and several shrines and wishing wells.
Holiday Inn’s Key Card Hotel
The designer of this amazing plastic palace amassed about 200,000 unwanted plastic slips and converted them into aguest house. The hotel includes a guest room, bathroom and lobby, all fully furnished with life-size furniture all made from the same materials.
Spiral Island
Created from over 250,000 plastic bottles and other recycled materials, the Spiral Island is open to public and could be one of the most impressive DIY projects of modern times.
Minister’s Treehouse
Created by Horace Burgess the Minister’s Treehouse is a 10-story treehouse in Crossville, Tennessee. The enormous treehouse covers an area of between 8000 to 10,000 square-feet and is built entirely from wood that has either been donated or is salvaged from barns and garages. The designers has spent $12,000 on the building, most of which went into purchasing about 258,000 nails.
Beer Bottle House
This Beer Bottle House is the creation of Tito Ingenieri who has spent 19 years in building this recycling wonder using about 6 million beer bottles. Quite obviously, the home doesn’t look sleek or chic but considering that the guy has spent close to two decades on the same, we have to give him some credit for recycling.
Toilet Seat Waterfall
Created as an art project in China, this unique waterfall is made up of thousands of recycled toilet seats, urinals and sinks.
Rock Garden
The Rock Garden in Chandigarh, India has been created by Nek Chand, a government official who started the garden secretly in his spare time in 1957. Today the garden is spread over an area of 160,000sqm and is completely built of industrial waste, home waste and other thrown-away items. The garden features man-made interlinked waterfalls and many other sculptures that have been made of scrap.
Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew Temple
Created by some monks, this Buddhist temple reuses about a million recycled beer bottles. This spectacular structure uses the green colored bottles of Heineken Beer and brown colored bottles of Chang Beer, which not only makes it look beautiful but also serves as a good book to educate the disciples on the benefits of recycling and environment conservation.
