If you entered the Robinson Library over the last couple of days and walked past the Student Text Collection you may have been surprised by the sight of an oversize bug goggling at you from yellow pupils within green eyeballs. Or perhaps it was its snarling grim face that caught your attention?The metaphor may be perfect: The frightening picture of… the ‘Litter Bug’! Mainly litter has been used to create the bug.

A class of sixteen of Year 7 from Longbenton Community College let off its creative steam and turned litter from their school into art. They worked with Sara from Special Collections and Richard & Linda from the Green Group as part of the Special Collections Outreach scheme to local schools.

Sara, Linda and Richard with the Litter Bug

Over two days the young “artists” planned and constructed two sculptures in total for their own school and the Robinson Library. The construction was limited to the final day, giving them only four hours to craft the sculptures from scratch, using recyclable litter from the library as well as materials from the House of Objects (HOO) at the Rising Sun Country Park.

The kids were amazed and surprised by how much litter currently comes together every day at their school (20 bags). In addition GBP 76,000 are annually spent on electricity. The “Litter Bug”-project sets a signal to decrease these numbers; and aimed at creating more eco-awareness among the youngsters.

Perhaps successfully: “The school could turn the projectors off after they’ve been used and install more recycling bins”, Georgia (11) suggested.