Durban North resident turns plastic waste into art
Since 2020, Melanie Wilson has walked along the beaches between Glenashley and Blue Lagoon in an effort to collect bottle caps and lighters washed up on the shore.
LAST year, data from the South African Association for Marine Biological Research (Saambr) showed that the items most collected at the KZN International Coastal Clean-up were plastic bottle caps, which had surpassed cigarette butts.
This data has been highlighted visually by the artwork by local resident and creative artist Melanie Wilson.
Since 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 lockdown, Wilson scoured beaches from Glenashley to Blue Lagoon in an effort to collect plastic washed up on Durban’s shoreline.
What followed was how Wilson created themed works of art from the detritus, specifically cigarette lighters and bottle caps she had found on the beach.
Wilson estimates that her collection of lighters and bottle caps number in the thousands which she has meticulously sorted into colour-coded containers.
She then creates works of art using the hand-picked items in geometric shapes on wooden boards dotted around her Durban North home.
While her works of art are visually stunning, they highlight an all too sad reality of plastic pollution and the threat to our oceans.
It is this heartbreaking scenario that Wilson hopes to address with her work.
“In one walk, I picked up close to 200 lighters alone – it’s just devastating,” she exclaimed. “When I started picking up litter off the beaches during lockdown, I noticed that much of what I was finding were plastic bottle tops and lighters. At the time, I would collect them, wash them and place them in buckets, but this year, I wanted to make a statement piece – one that told a picture of the threats to our ocean and the environment at large.
“And that statement piece has multiplied into 52 wooden boards with various patterns and different colour combinations. Considering that I chose to focus on plastic bottle caps and lighters on my clean-ups, I shudder to think what else is washing up on our shores on a daily basis. I still collect these items every time I walk on the beaches, and there are still bucket loads in my workshop waiting to be used,” she said.
For Wilson, plastic pollution is one of the most pressing environmental issues facing the planet.
Wilson said she hopes to one day display her artwork at local reserves as a way to promote recycling and to show just how much plastic is washing into our oceans from various rivers and stormwater drains.
“You’re bound to find more of the caps and lighters near the Umgeni River mouth. Most of them seem to come from upriver or are possibly washed down our stormwater drains before making their way onto beaches. I do still find quite a bit on Glenashley and Beachwood Beach, but I’ve never found nearly as many as I have near the river mouth. Ultimately, though, the main aim of my art pieces was to raise awareness of the threat of plastic to the world. I also hope this encourages others to pick up rubbish when they are at the beach. Even if I’m out with friends, I always have a bag with me to collect rubbish off the beaches,” she said.
She also highlighted the work carried out by Adopt-a-River and volunteer organisations that she said were making great strides in the fight against pollution.
“I’ve been so impressed by the work they do on a daily basis. I often see the Adopt-a-River team cleaning up, and in recent visits, I haven’t found as many lighters and bottle caps. I encourage residents to support their local beach clean-ups and organisations actively fighting against the tide of pollution affecting our oceans and beaches,” she said.
