More than 700 plastic milk bottles from cafes TwentyOne and Mocan and Green Grout have been turned into colourful coral and fishes in a new public art installation in West Civic.
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Artists Phil Nizette and Jennifer Jones spent months collecting the bottles turning them into letters which spell the word "resource", creating Recycled Reef, an artwork which comments on the poor use of resources and the impact on the environment.
Jones said the cafes were very supportive of the project but it highlighted the amount of manufactured material which is thrown away.
"We could have collected 5000 milk bottles if we wanted to," she said.
"It got us thinking about how those materials have value and we shouldn't be chucking them out after one use.
"We can be more inventive in the way we make the most out of these manufactured materials."
The project was launched at the Art, Not Apart festival in March, where there was a workshop for the public.
"People were quite happy just to sit around with a pair of scissors and a plastic bottle creating fish," Jones said.
"And conversations would start about the environment. When we applied for the grant late last year I don't think we realised how interested people were in the topic, about plastics specifically, it's very timely now."
Jones and Nizette operate as Wellspring Environmental Arts and Design. The have placed large orange structures on the hills of Bonner as well as tiles featuring historical photographs in Kingston's Green Square refurbishment.
"Our interest in the environment is the overarching thing with all our work," Jones said.
"We try to be really efficient with the use of materials and design them smartly so there's minimal waste. We try to have a light touch with our work."
As a statement, the letters "our" in the middle of resource are colourful and bright. The remaining letters bleached in a way to represent the current dilemmas with the Great Barrier Reef.
Recycled Reef, which was funded by a grant through In the City Canberra, has been placed on the unused pedestrian bridge in West Civic, on the corner of Alinga Street and West Row, near the ACT Health Building.
"At the time of the grant we didn't know where it was going," Jones said.
"The whole design evolved once we settled on the location, the disused bridge. It was a place was just crying out for something, so we gave it something and it's not crying anymore."
Recycled Reef will remain in place until August 12.
