The Art of Recycling as a Means to Stimulate Student Creativity in Making Art Works

Plastic waste is very dangerous for environmental sustainability. This waste is not biodegradable for hundreds of years, and is the largest environmental polluter in all parts of the world. In a day there are thousands of people who consume snacks with disposable plastic wraps meaning, thousands of non-recyclable, single-use plastics are also produced. Burning is not a good way to dispose of plastics since this will cause another problem which is air pollution.

Data published by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) show that the average amount of waste production in Indonesia reaches 175,000 tons per day, equivalent to 64 million tons per year. Based on these data, we can assume that the waste generated per person per day is 0.7 kilograms (kg). In fact, based on a study released by McKinsey and Co and the Ocean Conservancy, Indonesia is said to be the second largest plastic waste producing country in the world after China.

What can we do then to help solve the plastic waste problem? We have heard this before but we must continue to remind ourselves and others to consistently and constantly be vigilant in minding our plastic waste. First, we must reduce the use of single-use plastics. Second, we also have to make it a habit of disposing garbage in their proper place and of sorting between single-use and recyclable plastic waste. From these problems we experience, these are able to stimulate us to start creatively processing single-use plastic waste into handicraft items, such as tote bags using snack wrappers with the finger technique, mosaics, flower vase crafts, plastic sculptures, and so on.

Schools are one of the places that provide knowledge to children by providing socialization about the bad effects of plastic waste. The knowledge together with the teachers’ guidance helps stimulate students’ creativity and innovativeness to think of ways to solve the plastic waste problem. The first thing students can do is to sort out single-use plastics, such as plastic snack bags and plastic bags and recyclable plastics, such as plastic bottles. Then, invite students to make collages, montages, and mosaics by recycling single-use plastics, so that they become works of art that can be exhibited at school activities.