Each year 250 tonnes of rubbish is removed from the Forest of Dean, costing local taxpayers £457,000 per year to clean up. In 2016, environmental charity Hubbub launched its #LoveYourForest campaign, to tackle the issue through a number of interventions which in four years, has seen more than 800 bags of litter collected in the area.
Now, in its fifth year, Hubbub is calling on local artists to get involved in its next phase, which will see new ‘on-the-go’ recycling bins for plastic bottles and metal drinks cans rolled out in the town centres of Cinderford, Coleford, Lydney, and Newent, to widen the message beyond reducing litter, to recycling it too.
Artists are being invited to enter a competition to create an eye-catching installation to help spread the message of the importance of recycling plastic bottles and drinks cans, so these valuable materials can remain in circulation. The winning installation, once built, will then tour the four towns of the Forest of Dean from early May and should invoke a sense of pride and love for the forest, while fitting in with the community it sits in.
To date Hubbub has successfully trialed a pop-up litter shop displaying 33-year old litter collected from the forest floor, reminding people that litter can stick around for a very long time; a trail of ‘Litter Creature’ sculptures displayed around the forest to remind people to take their litter home, and the ’Trashconverter’ which invites members of the public to swap their trash for treats.
Run in collaboration with Lucozade Ribena Suntory who are a local employer in the Forest of Dean, the Forest of Dean District Council, Forestry England, Foresters’ Forest, local artist Glenn Redwood, and Forest of Dean & Wye Valley Tourism; 16 schools and 38 local businesses have already got behind the campaign and over 11,000 people have been involved, with the numbers continuously on the rise.
Rhiannon Ashley, Project Co-ordinator at Hubbub, said: “Our partners in the Forest of Dean have allowed us to get really creative with interventions that have proven hugely successful in engaging people with Love Your Forest. This is an exciting opportunity for local artists, with a genuine interest in protecting their forest and local towns from litter, to help take this campaign to another level. We want to create something that will really draw attention to the new recycling on-the-go facilities and ensure they’re used by everyone so we can capture and recycle as much valuable packaging such as drinks bottles and cans as possible.”
Michelle Norman, Head of Sustainability at Lucozade Ribena Suntory commented: “Lucozade Ribena Suntory has a vision of Growing for Good and we’re hugely excited about driving awareness of the importance of recycling and a litter-free environment with these new installations in the Forest of Dean.
“Love your Forest embraces new ways to encourage behaviour change and the power of art has the power to change. We want any artist who feels inspired to use art to support the preservation of our natural environment to get involved in what we know will be another fantastic year for the Love Your Forest campaign.”
Councillor Sid Phelps, Cabinet Member for the Environment at the Forest of Dean District Council said: “This is a great opportunity for a local artist to showcase their work and get involved with the Love Your Forest campaign. While the majority of people already act responsibly and use a litter bin, we hope the new art installation will inspire more of us to go that one step further and actively recycle our rubbish using the on-the-go bins.”
Sue Middleton, Programme Manager at Foresters’ Forest said: “We look forward to seeing some creative responses from artists that really encourage everyone to think about how we can re-use or recycle plastics and cans, helping keep litter out of our Forest.”
How to enter the competition:
Read the installation brief at: http://bit.ly/37911w8
Create a design/mock-up of your idea.
Write a short paragraph explaining your concept and planned materials.
Send your design and supporting paragraph to hello@hubbub.org.uk with the subject ‘LOVE YOUR FOREST INSTALLATION’ by Sunday 15th March at 11pm.