The Waste of the World

Waste of the World brought together High Storrs School in Sheffield and Veolia Environmental Services, which manages the city's municipal waste, in a project that combined art and geography to encourage children to consider 'what happens to our waste'?

Two groups were challenged to use recyclable and non-recyclable materials to produce sculptures to represent the household waste stream. They produced some fantastic fish which were exhibited in the city centre at Sunwin House on The Moor, a shopping precinct in Sheffield city centre, during Festival of Social Science week: 12th-21st March 2010. They were displayed swimming along the waste stream either to the incinerator or to be recycled. Those recyclable fish can be refashioned into a whole host of new products from newspapers, cans and bottles through fleece clothes, construction materials and street furniture to the very bins that collect waste. Those going to the incinerator are not wasted either, they will be used to generate electricity, which is exported to the national grid, and hot water which pumped around the city to heat 130 local buildings such as the Town Hall, Ponds Forge and the Winter Gardens.

Energy, new products and art-work – all showing the Power of Sheffield’s Waste

Ryan Parker – Art Teacher at High Storrs School comments on the process of doing the project

“While pupils already create a sculpture as an art-project during their first year at High Storrs School, they tend to be made from new materials with little thought to their life as waste. The challenge was for one group to make sculptures from recyclable materials. Instead of using tissue paper for instance, an apparently difficult to recycle material, we used newspaper to cover a cardboard base and we used a water based ink to colour the fish. This had effects on the finished products. They are more difficult to colour as the newsprint shows through the weaker paint. However, with the need to use tape and glue the finished recycled products are not easily dismantled and might therefore be more difficult to recycle than we had hoped. Although a challenge, working to a set brief the students have created innovative works of art from waste materials”.

Dheen ul Hassan, a pupil at the school, clearly felt he benefitted from the project:

"I’ve really enjoyed being involved in the project, especially visiting different places in Sheffield and finding out what happens to rubbish. I’ve found out how easy it is now for print and pictures to be taken off newspapers, and how much rubbish can be recycled. I really liked making my fish from old newspapers and card."

Veolia, the waste company, were pleased with the outcome:

“It has been a pleasure to be involved in this project and we are very impressed with the fish created by the pupils. They give an eye catching display of how we use waste as a resource in Sheffield and help to show how we are working hard to increase recycling.”

Organisation and Funding of the Project

The Project brought together High Storrs School and Veolia Environmental Services, which manages Sheffield’s municipal waste. It was organised by the University of Sheffield and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council as part of the Festival of Social Science week of events running from 12th-21st March 2010.

> Click here to view the gallery of fish

> Click here to download the project poster.

Click the images to enlarge: