Recycling is finally being taken seriously. Landfills are designed to accept our trash metal, glass, paper and plastic so they can be put back into good use.

It wasn’t long ago that Gerry and I were walking on a boardwalk through a wet area and saw a sign noting that the boards were made of recycled plastic milk bottles. Ingenious. Plastic never goes away and the boards seemed strong and looked just like real wood. Probably they’ll even last longer than real wood ones. That recycling helps save our forests and keeps the earth from filling up with trash.

We met a man in Hawaii who is taking trash recycling to a very different level, a level that is beautiful to look at and brings awareness to the importance of the effort of recycling: trash art.

Don Elwing calls himself an ecoplasticartishionist. That sure is a new word for the Webster Dictionary and it describes his position well — making art with discarded plastic. And Don is not alone in this art field — it is an art form that is growing in popularity. Don prefers to call his trash art “awareness art” because his goal is to make people aware of the huge amount of materials, especially plastic, that can be recycled into something new and useful.

And, the recycling awareness aspect of his work holds more importance for him than the money he gets from patrons who purchase his art. Don brings the message of recycling and picking up trash to young people, ages that are most impressionable. He goes to schools throughout the state and gives presentations about preserving the earth by recycling.

Don brings examples of his art, and much of his works show familiar landscapes, flowers, and animals that are familiar, with emphasis on ones that are endangered by people harming their environments. Following his presentation, he invites the children to create their own art from the trash he brings with him to the classrooms.

“I get joy from the cleanup, joy from the art, and joy from the kids,” Don says. “It’s the best thing I ever did in my life.”

It’s not easy to get his materials — it’s much easier to go to the store and buy paint and brushes. He goes to a beach where water currents bring in ocean trash and fills his truck with all the debris he finds. He takes a lot of it to the dump and keeps the rope and plastic he can use for art. We, along with our son Cort and granddaughters, know what a big job it is because we joined him one morning for a huge beach cleanup effort.

He welcomed our family to come to his studio and create art from the trash collection which he had carefully sorted by color and type of substance. A friendship was established with him and since then, Cort has brought visitors to the studio to create art. The wall in Cort’s hallway displays the colorful results of our family and friends’ work, a wall full of trash art, and my wall back home has Van Gogh’s self-portrait made by Don with trash sea rope. I admired it when I saw it in his studio, and Cort surprised me with it on my birthday.

Don has received prizes for his art, many first prizes, he’s been recognized by National Geographic for his recycling awareness education to young people, and he was honored when asked to send three of his pieces for exhibition at the United Nations building in New York during the week of Earth Day in 2020.

Four years ago, he was invited to set up an exhibition of his work in the Discovery Center in Hilo, Hawaii. It has been so popular that the center still keeps it on display.

Don is very humble about the fame he is getting. He said, “I never knew I was an artist. I was just doing my part to save the earth.”

We may not all have the talent to gain fame by making trash art, but we all can do our parts to save the earth by disposing of trash correctly.

Carole Gariepy lives in Phillipston. 

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