The Keighley Green Trail was a community based environmental art project, supported by the Arts Council England, aimed at inspiring local residents to lead a greener life. I worked with a number of artists from different disciplines to help transform empty shops in the town centre. Each artist had a separate window to inform the public in creative and unusual ways about the environment, resulting in an inspiring trail.

I created a series of images using the question ‘What is recycling?’ as a starting point. I worked with a number of local environmental organisations including Aire Valley Recycling and Bradford Environmental Action Trust examining what happens to our waste once we have finished with it.

Aire Valley Recycling make heroic efforts to reuse our waste paper, tin, plastic and clothes. However, most of our refuse ends up at landfill sites. I visited a local council landfill and I was shocked by the vast landscape of used manufactured goods that are to be hidden in manmade hills.

Deciding if we should re-cycle a product of not is a choice that we all make daily. The landfill is something we try to forget but recycling is part of a new beginning. The appeal of a new product on a supermarket shelf can be alluring but we also need to think about what happens once it has outlived its initial purpose.

We know the earth’s resources are finite and the way we have been living is unsustainable. Recycling represents a re-emerging awareness that people are interconnected; we are all co-creators of our future.

The exhibition was taken down last week. However, I have included all of the final images in this blog post.