Chennai: Step into VR Mall, Anna Nagar, and you will come across a series of art works and installations, Kochi Biennale style, all part of the Madras Art Guild Festival. Among them is a 10-foot sculptural arch, right at the entrance, seemingly made of small tiles. But these are no ordinary tiles, each has been made from plastic litter from the Chennai coast, collected by volunteers, but not the usual ‘use and throw’ type. “Recycled plastic is notorious for being of poor quality and easily broken. These tiles and the other furniture items have been created after extensive research, and are tough and solid,” says King Gowtham, founder of Walk for Plastic, and Art Kingdom, which upcycles and recycles coastal plastic litter in large quantities. Gowtham started off as an art director, upcycling plastic into art installations. “Using conventional methods, only about 50kg of plastic can be used for such an installation, but we upcycled nearly 233kg of plastic waste into tiles. At the back are another 30kg of plastic bottles collected from the coastline region. It also has electronic waste, mirror waste, and the refurbished iron pipes for the structures. We have collaborated with UNESCO’s ‘pockets of hope’ programme for the project.”Another artwork at the mall appears like portraits but is sachet art in reality. “Nearly 50,000 plastic sachets have been used for creating them,” says Gowtham. The organisation spends the money earned from recycling on educating the children of the waste management chain – ragpickers, scavengers etc. from in and around Chennai. “Out of the 33 children we have helped so far, seven are school dropouts. Many are malnourished, and we provide them with the right nutrition, tuition fees and money for school uniforms.“Over the years, the organisation has upcycled over 35,000kg of plastic into art installations and recycled 1 lakh kilograms of plastics. His vision, says Gowtham, is to “create a beautiful world inclusive of waste”.
