The residency was a success with the final event drawing many people up to Bisley on Saturday evening. The project enabled villagers as well as the participating households an opportunity consider the rubbish generated, its impact and future. From an artistic point of view the challenge was to create engaging work that was not only dynamic and relevant to villagers but discussed the issue of landfill and contributed to a broader ongoing artistic debate.
The majority of participating households were keen recyclers, but even they found shocking the amount of non-recyclable plastics they were buying
(the real waste) along side the products they wanted. Practically all the discussions were on this one subject... PLASTICS!
If we are to confront the issue of landfill - Stroud District Council (SDC) spent £1.5 m* on filling a hole in the ground last year - then we must pressurise the supermarkets en masse to change their packaging, away from plastics to compostable alternatives and to encourage reuse ie deposits on bottles and jars.
Just imagine what £1.5m would do for the local economy if it were spent on more practical things. I felt that during the residency a critical point had been reached by those that recycle and those that cant or wont and that now the onus sits squarely on business and industry to change its ways.
Right now industry and business factor wastage into the price of the product and it is in this relationship where change will have most impact. We need to split the old business model and insert a new business dynamic that explores and utilises Zero Waste as a guiding principal and model. Zero Waste in actual fact presents an opportunity for a business to gain additional revenue as opposed to an additional cost to the consumer.
The situation as it stands is unsustainable, rubbish costs us not only financially but also represents a waste of precious resources. The waste lingers in the
ground leaching noxious chemicals into the ground with the potential for causing yet more pressure on ecosystems. As consumers we must publicly state that we resent paying for industries bad practice and refuse to pay twice for something we don't even want, (once during its manufacture then again on its disposal).
Art is a method of communication but key to that is the discussion that accompanies it. This process forms an equal part of an artworks value. My hope is that with this residency those involved and those that visited reflected on and questioned the normalisation of this waste and discussed it with their friends.
* SDC source Waste Management Budget Book:
Actual Expenditure 2007/2008 - Net Expenditure £1,620,504SDC have signed a
14 year contract with Veolia Environmental Services Ltd to run the refuse collection. The standard is seven. If we don't like the way they do things well...quite a long wait till we get a new contractor!
Gavin McClafferty Feb 2009
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