Everything Is Rubbish is a recycling art project by a trio of British guys. Charles Duffy, William Gubbins, and Billy Turvey wanted to make a statement about the millions of pieces of plastic that end up in the ocean every day. They gathered plastic trash on U.K. beaches, disinfected the crap out of it, heated it up, smashed it into sheets, and created shoes out of it.
The first of our clothing to show signs of damage is footwear. In the eyes of the consumer, a superficial blemish or a shift in the latest trend is all that’s needed to warrant a new purchase.
Contemporary footwear spends barely a fraction of its life hugging a foot. For the majority of its life it is rubbish. Whether in a landfill or washed up on a shoreline, the synthetics within the shoes — in addition to the plethora of plastic we discard — will take centuries to break down.
Analysis: This artwork brings creativity into the shoe industry. It shows how materials can be made from anything, even recycled materials that were considered trash.
