These Animals are Made of Trash

Octavia the Octopus’s eight tentacles are covered in soda bottle caps. Flash the Marlin’s gills have been crafted from thrown-away toilet seats. And Maury the Turtle has flippers created out of an old air mattress. Who are these colorful litter critters? They’re statues that a group called Washed Ashore has fashioned from plastic waste. But Washed Ashore is not only building innovative sculptures. It’s also trying to save sea animals from a deadly enemy: plastic.

Each year, millions of pounds of plastic trash end up in our oceans. How? Very little of the plastic we use gets recycled properly. People toss plastic bags, bottles, straws, and other products onto the street. Rain and wind carry that litter into storm drains or rivers that flow into the ocean. And plastic takes a long time to break down. Certain kinds of plastic can float around in the ocean for hundreds of years.

All of this plastic can be harmful to the animals that live there. Sea creatures often mistake the trash for food and eat it, which can make them dangerously sick. They can also get tangled up in it. Plastic trash causes the deaths of millions of sea creatures every year.

Washed Ashore wants to help. The group gathers volunteers to collect plastic litter from the sandy beaches of Oregon. They scrub, clean, and sort all the garbage they find. Then they work with artists to turn the trash into giant statues of sea animals. Sometimes the sculptures are fabricated from the same type of litter that threatens the creature.

Washed Ashore’s dazzling trash statues are making a splash across America—and helping raise awareness about our plastic problem. “Every action counts,” says Washed Ashore’s founder, Angela Haseltine Pozzi. She hopes the art will encourage people to cut down on their use of plastic as much as possible, and to responsibly dispose of plastic they use so it doesn’t end up in the ocean.

One ingenious idea for how to do that? Next time, instead of tossing out that plastic bottle or take-out container, consider making your own beautiful trash art.