A couple living in North California have been collecting plastic debris from a beach near their home for over a decade. What began as an interest in collecting items others might see as beach waste quickly turned into self-expression when Richard Lang and Judith Selby Lang began making pieces of recycled art from their finds.

Now their work, which uses nothing but the plastic debris they collect from that one beach, is in high demand, not only for its beauty, but also because of its important message about the world’s oceans. Massive ‘gyres’ of plastic and chemical waste have developed in the oceans because plastic debris never breaks down, it just gets eroded into smaller and smaller pieces threatening life in the ocean from the microscopic level all the way up the food chain.

“To get the message of what was happening to the ocean planet, the work had to be beautiful,” say Richard and Judith. “We were artists first and we knew the environmental message would be received once eyes were opened.”

Watch this inspirational film about them and their recycled art – and tell us what you think…

February 15, 2012 | Filed under Environment, We've been inspired by and tagged with innovative ideas, oceans, recycling, upcycling.