images via: Luz Interruptus

I was looking through this fabulous book about all sorts of cool, innovative techniques for ways to use recycled material and then I saw this post over at Luz Interruptus  where they used 80 plastic bags to create a stunning nighttime art piece, with an overarching message to recycle, outside The Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain.  The piece was called “A Cloud of Bags Visit The Prado”.  It’s simple, just lit plastic shopping bags.  All the different logos and ads on the bags made for a very diverse landscape of backlit color, floating and crinkling in the wind.

I especially love their installation called Urban Trash which consisted of bags of bags that were lit from the inside to create these almost surreal glowing piles of plastic.  It almost looks like the cartoon version of toxic waste. 

I immediately thought of my time in Mexico City where on trash days very large piles of bags would magically appear on sidewalks, in the middle of roundabouts or vegetated medians used for walking.  It was not a pretty sight but after witnessing the alternative, chasing the garbage truck on foot through the neighborhood with your trash, I can understand why people do it.  But it’s one of those things that goes unnoticed in the day to day and becomes routine.  I wonder what people would think if suddenly it was lit up.  Would anyone notice?  What would they think or do?