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Plasticvalla : Towards a plastic-free world

In response to the current issues of environmental degradation, Manveer Singh Gautam aka Plasticvalla, his art practice is rooted in the discourse around ‘art for nature’ while directly working at the intersection of art and sustainability. His artistic efforts seep into the routine of every day that points towards acts at the individual level, the markers that can bring about a change. 

Manveer is a trained visual artist, through his college years of practice, his focus drastically shifted towards environmental concerns through his art making and working ‘for the environment.’

He regularly collects plastic waste from more than 200 families and upcycles more than 30 kgs of MLP every month. Deploying plastic waste generated from households every day, he uses MLP and other hard-to-recycle plastic that leads to sculptural forms and large-scale immersive installations. He has created a handful of permanent public artworks, and big-scale sculptural installations across the country and exhibited in various international festivals and displays. In each of his public installation works, Plasticvalla involves the community with engaging workshops, spreading awareness about plastic pollution and directly making them participate in learning various crafts with plastic and art-making from waste. 

He has designed a Habit Changer Box, one of its kind where aesthetic and functionality come together that help pinpoint behavioral patterns, and map consumerist tendencies. This box indicates domestic waste generated; a reminder that makes an individual aware of how little effort one can put to help save the environment. 

A ‘Habit-changer ‘ is a box that is meant to collect hard-to-recycle plastic waste. The frontal landscape gradually immerses into the plastic waste collected inside the box, just like landscape transformation in reality. Using the Habit-Changer, any individual/community can create a systematic habitual practice of waste management; after the box gets filled, the waste storage can go for recycling and you can start putting your trash again in the empty box. These boxes strike a perfect balance between utilitarian function and public sensitization. When placed in an office, for instance, a Habit-changer would be not only the place for disposing of plastic waste but also a constant visual reminder of the plastic consumption of the employees.

Plasticvalla’s journey so far is on the path of a consciously driven future where he believes in creating an impact through his artistic practice and devising workshops to spread awareness about the issue. He aims to create more conscious minds like him across the country that could allow his intentions to generate a sustainable milieu of art and ecology.