In 2018, under the dubious moniker of the “rubbish dump of the world”, Thailand accepted over 552 million metric tons of domestic waste from other countries, mainly from Europe, the US and Japan. The waste was either dumped, incinerated or melted down, often without adequate regulations, at newly built recycling centres which leach poison into the local environment.

Over the last five years, Thailand has been steadily trying to grapple with its waste issue, rolling out a new scheme at the start of the year which set out to completely ban imports of plastic scraps by 2025. While the number of imports has decreased by 88% since its zenith in 2018, the plastic ban won’t impact locals for decades, as new recycling centres continue to open. As long as consumer goods companies keep selling single-use plastic without taking responsibility for the cost or means of its disposal, the waste will be passed onto someone else.

Using salvaged materials from his previous projects and surroundings, Bangkok-based designer Eric Tobua constructs monumental sets, props and garments from the detritus of millions of households’ shopping, cooking, eating and buying. From a towering headdress made from more than 100 watch faces adorned with delicate flowers, to sweeping batwings built from plastic bags, and a top fashioned from motorbike wing mirrors picked up from a flea market, the artist’s work comments on the transformative nature of plastic. The very plasticity of the material is what creates the problem in the first place, but it’s perhaps also the source of its  repair. As ever, change depends on adapting the systems by which a thing is imbued with meaning. “I want to increase the value of recycled materials,”says Tobua. “My work proves that trash can also become art.” ◉