Any narrative that leans toward anti-environment is objectionable, and rightfully so. This holds true, on a global scale, across various domains ranging from art to fashion. While the world is making strides in achieving sustainable goals, the plastic waste crisis is one that has reached breaking point. A number of artists across the world are responding to this plastic exigency by crafting artistic projects. The city-based Manveer Singh, alias Plasticvalla, is one such innovator.
After completing a master’s degree in Fine Arts from the College of Art, Delhi, Plasticvalla worked as an art teacher. While creating landscape paintings, he realised how most spaces have been negatively modified because of the ongoing plastic waste crisis. “The transition from Haridwar (his birthplace) to an urban Delhi landscape shifted my relationship with nature,” says Plasticvalla. He adds, “Living in urban Delhi, a jungle of concrete and hills of garbage such as the Ghazipur landfill, is a contradictory reality that raised a worrying thought in my mind.” This is when he decided to use the raw material for his artistic creations. “Knowing that plastic is a massive contributor to climate change, I decided to use plastic, which would have ended in landfills, in artworks. The people and the neighbourhoods from where I would collect plastic started calling me Plasticvalla, and the name stuck with me. I use hard-to-recycle plastic in the same way that a painter uses paint!”
The innovation, of course, involves a lot of experimentation. He says, “Using plastic as a medium has been a challenge. We are taught how to use oil and acrylics to make artworks, not plastic. It took a lot of trial and error until using it as a medium.” For his creations, Plasticvalla primarily uses Multi-Layer Packaging (MLP) or plastic with a recycling code seven. The recycling process of MLP in itself, he shares, is cumbersome, “as the plastic has to be cleaned thoroughly after it is collected and then separated based on its type.” He elaborates, “The separation is the tricky part. Hence, the only way to process MLPs to get it out of sight is by incineration of waste to energy plants. Handling MLP waste has proven to be unsustainable and damaging to the environment.”
Having sold his artworks in India as well as Dubai and Germany, Plasticvalla mentions, “In India, most of my works have been temporary public installations. For example, the plastic water drain installation at the Manesar resort.”
We asked him about his recent selection for the ‘METIS Initiative on Plastics and Indo-Pacific Ocean 2021’ Residency, which was organised in Collaboration with the Agence Française de Développement (AFD). Talking about crafting an artistic response to plastics and ocean survival in Odisha, Plasticvalla says, “My goal is to use 50kgs of plastic to create a public installation in Bhubaneshwar. I want to engage the local community in the process.”
Discussing the recent move by the Delhi government to phase out single-use plastic from the city by December 2022, Plasticvalla says, “I welcome the move. However, I am interested in the details of this plan. Single-use plastic is a broad category. PET bottles, polythene, plastic packaging, which is MLP, among others, can fall under single-use plastic. Out of these, MLP is the most challenging one. How does the Delhi government plan to address the issues with MLP?”
Combatting plastic pollution will have to be a collective effort. Plasticvalla agrees, concluding, “I want to compel people to reduce the consumption of hard-to-recycle plastic that lands in dumping yards after getting carelessly discarded. I also want to ensure that no piece of plastic ends up in landfills without being segregated at the source.”