Mount Recyclemore: Cornwall welcomes back the giant G7 heads
The sculpture made entirely from e-waste now stands tall at the Eden Project
Last updated 14th Oct 2021
The giant heads of the G7 leaders, made entirely from e-waste, have returned to Cornwall.
Named 'Mount Recyclemore', the sculpture has been installed at the Eden Project to coincide with International E-Waste Day (14th October).
Many thousands of visitors heading for the world-famous Biomes will now see the striking images of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President Joe Biden and their fellow leaders in the stunning work which has a striking environmental message behind it.
Mount Recyclemore – inspired by the USA’s monumental Mount Rushmore sculpture - highlights the huge environmental threat of electronic waste.
It made a massive splash when it first appeared on Sandy Acres near Hayle during the G7 summit of world leaders back in June.
This week it has been re-installed between the main gate and the Biomes at the Eden Project near St Austell.
Created by leading re-commerce expert, musicMagpie, alongside artist and founder of the Mutoid Waste Company, Joe Rush, and sculptor Alex (Wreckage International), the installation features seven three-metre-high heads made out of approximately 20,000 individual pieces of e-waste including mobile phones, consoles and computer parts.
The arresting work depicts Boris Johnson, Japan's then Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Joe Biden, all of whom were at the Eden G7 dinner on June 11th.
Eden’s Co-Founder Sir Tim Smit said: “Hooray! The Mount Recyclemore sculpture is coming to Eden, returning to Cornwall where it made its impressive stage debut, drawing attention to electronic waste during the G7 gathering and colonising as much newsprint and photo coverage as some of the leaders themselves.
“Joe Rush’s humorous and talented take on e-waste deserves an audience and it is important that we underscore the issue that the main problem is not just wastefulness but worse still is the business advantage of simply buying low-cost replacement equipment because the broken stuff is incapable of being repaired or is too expensive to do so.
“This is madness and needs legislating against. So…we are big fans of Joe and musicMagpie’s work and look forward to the installation giving millions of people something to both enjoy and think about.”
Steve Oliver, Group CEO of musicMagpie, added: “We are thrilled to announce that Mount Recyclemore will be spending its third life at the Eden Project. We hope that by visiting the sculpture people will be persuaded to think differently about how we use and dispose of our tech, instead promoting a circular economy to ensure those products and their parts can be kept in circulation for longer.
“We are also giving customers the chance to donate the proceeds of their trade-ins to the Eden Project charity while Mount Recyclemore is in situ, and with £16.5bn worth of unused tech sitting in homes across the country, we encourage people to rummage through those drawers and help reduce e-waste while also raising funds for a worthy cause.”
Mount Recyclemore was created to raise awareness of the growing problem of e-waste, which is reported to be the fastest growing waste stream in the world. According to the UN, the current 53 million tonnes of e-waste generated annually worldwide will more than double by 2050.
Despite this growing environmental issue, musicMagpie’s own research has found that an alarming four in five (79%) Britons do not know what e-waste is.
When given the definition of e-waste, nearly a third (31%) didn’t believe it damaged the environment or were unsure, while 45% weren’t aware it impacted climate change.
Joe Rush has previously collaborated with the likes of Banksy, Vivienne Westwood and Damien Hirst to create art about environmental issues and is working with musicMagpie to raise awareness of a more sustainable way to buy, rent, sell and recycle consumer tech by encouraging a circular economy.
You can find more information on Mount Recyclemore here.