Press Releases

The exhibition Waste Not! Want Not! looks at some of the astonishing products that are made by firms in Wales from waste that includes discarded dirty nappies and the huge polythene wrappers seen on fields across Wales when farmers cut their crops for silage.

Recycling has always gone on in some form or another as raw materials were once so scarce. But worldwide trade and mining on a massive scale meant access to pristine ores and fossil fuels became easy. Now Western nations fear they represent environmental disaster and recycling has become the norm.

However we are still not doing anywhere near enough, as the exhibition points out. Of 9.5 billion aluminium cans made in the UK every year, only around half are recycled, even though they can be remade into new cans forever.

And though we are familiar with the recycling of paper, metals and plastics, the exhibition shows how unlikely materials are being formed into new objects to carry on a useful life, rather than being left to rot in landfill.

One of the most eye-opening exhibits is the product made from nappies recycled by a firm in Ammanford. Nappicycle, part of Natural UK Ltd, have developed a pioneering process to recover materials from used nappies – essential given that each nappy can take 500 years to break down. If King Henry VIII’s first daughter Mary – born in 1516 - had used disposable nappies they would just about be rotting now!

Also on show is a huge cuddly orangutan made from recycled school gym ropes by Cardiff artist Dominic Gubb, who will also have some of his animals made from former mop heads and old leather sofas in the exhibition.

Swansea residents can also see what happens to their own recycled waste with a film made in the council’s Baling plant in Llansamlet showing what happens to the contents of green and pink bags.

Jacqui Roach, curator of Waste Not! Want Not!, says,

"When you see what can be created out of what we throw away, it’s quite amazing. And when we look at the facts on how long things take to biodegrade, it’s often centuries, and we’re running out of planet to take all this waste. To be able to continue living as humans on this Earth, re-using things has to be an essential part of our future. I hope this exhibition will open everyone’s eyes to new and creative ways of cutting down on what they send to landfill."

The exhibition will include more than 50 objects from around the world made from unlikely materials, such as rugs made from recycled saris from India, a South African shoulder bag made from a car’s tyre inner tube and licence plate, and a kennel from Brazil made from recycled toothpaste tubes.

It will also tell the story of everyday objects such as a drinks can and a pair of jeans, and there will also be handy hints for today’s recyclers as to where to pick up their recycling bags from the City & County of Swansea Council.

Waste Not! Want Not! runs from Saturday, 22 October to 30 April at the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea.