Giant plastic sculpture in Birmingham to raise awareness around household waste
It highlights over 3000 items of the city’s laundry plastic ending up in landfill.
Last updated 19th May 2023
A huge sculpture titled ‘Sick of Plastic’, featuring a washing machine ‘vomiting’ thousands of pieces of laundry plastic, has been revealed in Birmingham’s Centenary Square to bring attention to the daily amount that ends up unrecycled, and incinerated or in landfill, from Birmingham’s households.
The sculpture has been commissioned by smol, in its ambition to revolutionise the laundry industry by offering Birmingham plastic-free alternatives which make a big difference to the environment.
Made from over 3,000 pieces of recycled laundry plastic which, represents the amount of unrecycled laundry plastic which ends up in landfill or incinerated every day in Birmingham alone.
The sculpture is the brainchild of smol, in collaboration with Midlands artist, Sarah Turner, renowned for her work using waste materials.
The UK laundry industry is responsible for sales of 110 million plastic laundry packs each year, many of which use needless plastic despite alternatives being available.
Birmingham was recently revealed as one of the nation’s worst cities for recycling so it's not surprising that smol has found that a huge 1.19 million plastic laundry packs end up as waste each year from Birmingham alone.
The city’s recycling system has come under fire in recent weeks with the council’s decision to continue using a waste incinerator despite targets set to improve recycling rates not being met.
The Sick of Plastic sculpture will also support the charity, Surfers Against Sewage to tackle plastic waste in Birmingham by donating £5,000 to support the charity’s Plastic-Free Communities work in the city.
The arresting sculpture uses the very same washing machine which locals may recognise from smol’s new Midlands TV advert; Sick of Plastic. smol has launched the campaign to call on the public to join its revolution by switching to sustainable alternatives, with smol having unveiled the UK’s first plastic-free laundry and dishwasher packs in 2020.
The sculpture will be displayed in front of The Library of Birmingham in Centenary Square on the 19th of May.