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Plastic Art Project #3: “Belly Full of Trash”

Photo of large fish made from a green and black wake board with plastic trash pieces attached to it to make it appear as a fish with a a view of its belly, which is full of plastic trash.
“Belly Full of Trash,” copyright Marie Cullis, 2025.

About

This is my third plastic trash art project, and this one differs from my previous creations. First, it’s the largest, measuring almost 59 inches wide and 39 inches between the tips of each “fin.” It’s also the heaviest. Finally, rather than depicting a scene, this piece depicts a large fish, showing a cross-section of its stomach and revealing that it is filled with plastic waste. Given the high number of marine animals that perish due to plastic ingestion, I felt it was crucial to illustrate this issue.

When marine animals accidentally ingest plastic, they are often unable to regurgitate it or pass it through their digestive systems. As plastic accumulates, it can block digestion, causing the animal to feel full and reducing its urge to eat, which eventually leads to starvation. Sharp fragments can also injure internal organs, causing infections and internal bleeding. In 2021, Earth.org estimated that the number of marine animals affected each year exceeds 100,000. “We find about 100,000 marine animals killed by ocean plastic ingestion or entanglement each year, and this is only the tip of the iceberg. There are likely far more lying at the bottom of the ocean, who, once decomposed, will release the plastic for other animals to encounter. Approximately 1 million sea birds also die from plastic annually.”1 The actual number is likely much higher as plastic production increases every year.

Slight inset of a Photo of large fish made from a green and black wake board with plastic trash pieces attached to it to make it appear as a fish with a view of its belly, which is full of plastic trash.
Copyright Marie Cullis.

Location

I collected trash and plastic debris from Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, during the week of Memorial Day in 2024. When I collect beach trash, the type I find can vary because of the time of year or location. For instance, in the more remote parts of the Outer Banks, I found lots of microplastics, rather than whole items like cups and bottles. But on this trip, I found very few microplastics and mostly large items, including cups, water bottles, toys, and food packaging. This was likely because I was in a populated area of Hilton Head, and it was a holiday weekend.

Collected Beach Trash

Memorial Day weekend at any beach is extremely busy, and Hilton Head was no exception. Beachgoers left behind all manner of items, mostly plastic, and much of it seemed careless.

Example 1: Food Packaging and Juice pouches:

Five juice pouches, Capri Sun and KoolAid brands, some still with the straws in them, lying on a white tray.
These CapriSun and Kool-Aid juice pouches became the fins of my giant fish.
Various food packages - chip bags, candy wrappers, and other snack packaging - lying on a white tray.
Various food packages - chip bags, candy wrappers, and other snack packaging - lying on a white tray.
Various food packages - chip bags, candy wrappers, and other snack packaging - lying on a white tray.
Various food packages - chip bags, candy wrappers, and other snack packaging - lying on a white tray.
A full-sized red Lay's potato chip bag.

Of course, everyone gets hungry on the beach, and that’s okay! But we can all be responsible and properly dispose of our food waste and packaging. Bring a small trash bag, or simply place the trash inside your cooler or food bag, and put it in the trash later. It’s not an inconvenience; it’s easy, and it’s the right thing to do.

Example 2: Beverage Containers

Water bottles, plastic or Styrofoam cups, and plastic straws were everywhere! These are items we are all capable of managing and disposing of properly.

The source of several of these items was an outdoor hotel bar at Coligny Beach Park in Hilton Head, which served drinks in clear plastic cups with brown plastic straws. Even with ample trash receptacles, everyone is ultimately responsible for their own waste. But the hotel bar could also stop serving in plastic.

Various brands of water bottles on a white tray.
Clear plastic cups of different varieties, including one from Dunkin'.
Styrofoam cups and pieces on a gray table.
Crushed Coca-Cola can, red with fist image.
Crushed Coca-Cola can. Note that when these rust, they become very sharp and cause injuries, since many people walk barefoot on the beach and swim in the surf without shoes.
Various colors and sizes of straws on a gray table.
The brown straws on the left came from the outdoor hotel bar – I accidentally verified this when I bought a drink there.

Example 3: Beach Toys

While I’m not perfect, I always account for all of our beach toys at the end of the day. We keep our beach toy bag intentionally minimal, with only about 8 items, so we can enjoy the beach and easily keep track of them. Please do the same!

I found more lost or abandoned beach toys than I could use in this art project:

Various colors and sizes of toy shovels.
Various sizes and colors of sand molds, and a red toy boat.
Beach star sand molds in green and red, a broken water gun, and a blue plastic scoop.
Purple fish shaped sifter, a blue frisbee disc, and Velcro Ball game paddle.
Various beach shovels with pink or green heads; two broken.
Two small toy nets, red and white.
A group of snap-on handles from toy beach buckets.
A group of snap-on handles from toy beach buckets, which have obviously become detached. This is a very common problem, and I find these on every beach.
Various sand tools and broken parts of beach toys, in many shapes and colors.
The plastic netting that beach toys are often sold in.
The plastic netting that companies often package beach toys in. You can avoid these if you buy certain brands or buy beach toys secondhand.

I was unable to find a place to donate beach toys while on the island. There are “borrow” beach toy bins in some areas of Florida and Galveston, Texas, and beach libraries exist in the UK!

But I’ve since discovered there’s at least one on Hilton Head Island, though I’m not sure if it was there in 2024:

I didn’t use most of the whole, intact beach toys in this art project, and many are too large for my other projects. So, I may donate them or use them in another project. I definitely won’t put them in a landfill!

All Other Items:

Metal bottle caps, mostly from beer.
Metal bottlecaps
Plastic caps for drink (top) and applesauce packets in orange and yellow (bottom).
Plastic bottlecaps
Bottlecaps in a variety of colors, clear ones on right from water bottles.
So many bottlecaps
Colorful small plastic pieces in a variety of shapes.
Variety of small plastic items…
Plastic fingernails, 3 blue and one large french tip
…including fake plastic fingernails! Yuck!
Variety of plastic trash items found on the beach, some brightly colored, including a green cotton swab, a yellow stake, orange lighter, and white plastic spoons.
Plastic utensils, a Circle K lighter, SunBum lip balm, cotton swabs, cigarette buts, aluminum can tabs, a cork, stakes, travel-sized Neutrogena sunscreen, etc.
Bandaid, Qtips/cotton swabs, and cigarette butts
Band-Aid, cotton swabs, and cigarette butts
Orange plastic Circle K lighter, SunBum lip balm, and a white plastic spoon stem.
Orange plastic Circle K lighter, SunBum lip balm, and a white plastic spoon stem
Sunglasses, goggles, and goggles packaging.
Sunglasses, goggles, and goggles packaging
Plastic lids, all clear or white
Plastic lids
Various plastic and paper labels or tags
Various plastic and paper labels or tags
Examples of wipes and packing foam
Examples of wipes and packing foam
Zip ties, dental picks, hair ties, a bracelet, and various other string-type items, all made of plastics.
Zip ties, dental picks, hair ties, a bracelet, and various other string-type items, all made of plastics
Various strings but all made from nylon or polyester (plastic fabrics)
Various strings but all made from nylon or polyester (plastic fabrics)
Ribbon type items, various colors
Ribbon-type items
Pieces of clear plastic wrappers and bags
Pieces of clear plastic wrappers and bags
Pieces of black plastic
Pieces of black plastic
Various textile items, including a washcloth, a sock, and a shoe insert
Various textile items, including a washcloth, a sock, and a shoe insert
Various items including a clothing hanger, a flip flop, a child's water shoe, vape cartridges, a plastic test tube shot container, a piece of wood fence, and a random piece of plastic
Various items, including a clothing hanger, a flip flop, a child’s water shoe, vape cartridges, a plastic test tube shot container, a piece of wood fence, and a random piece of plastic
Vape cartridges, purple and white
Empty Purple Urkle THCA vape cartridges

The Board

ZAP wakeboard, lime green, green, aqua, and blue colored board with black accents, "Hell Cat" logo.

I took a solo beach walk one evening that week and found this board. Damaged and very dirty, it had washed up on the beach, with no one nearby. I held it up and waved it around to see if anyone claimed it, but no one did. I left it by the outdoor shower area of our rental for a couple of days, but no one picked it up.

I initially believed it was a wakeboard, used with a boat, and washed ashore. However, after researching online, I discovered it’s a ZAP skimboard that originally had raised traction pieces.2 (I removed the largest pieces before remembering to take photos, so I only have images of me removing the smaller ones.) While I could have possibly sold or donated it, the condition was questionable. The edges were chipped, the traction pieces were damaged, and the entire board had a thick layer of sticky sand that I had to scrape off with a razor blade.

Did I take someone’s skimboard? I don’t think so. I believe it was lost or abandoned, considering its condition. My alternative was to leave it for the sea to claim at high tide, or perhaps for a lifeguard to pick it up the next morning if it remained on the beach, and ultimately end up in the garbage. So I decided to use it as the background for my art project!

  • ZAP wakeboard, lime green, green, aqua, and blue colored board with black accents, "Hell Cat" logo. Razor blade scraper and black traction piece visible.
  • ZAP wakeboard, lime green, green, aqua, and blue colored board with black accents, "Hell Cat" logo. Razor blade scraper and black traction piece visible.
ZAP wakeboard, lime green, green, aqua, and blue colored board with black accents, "Hell Cat" logo.

The Process

Washing the trash

I usually rinse everything before bringing it home. But this trip, I didn’t have time. I also had so much trash that my spouse insisted I limit it to one bag only (and in all fairness, we have a small car and it was already mostly full for the trip). So, once I got home, I decided to wash it all right away – rather than letting it sit – to avoid bad smells and keep yucky trash out of my home. I had to do it in batches over a couple of days.

First, I separated a portion of the garbage bag and put it in a metal bucket to rinse off the sand. I recommend doing this to keep as much sand as possible out of your plumbing. I dumped the water on my grass; no harm done.

Metal bucket of beach trash in soapy water, all sorts of colors and textures.

Next, I washed everything with dish soap in my kitchen sink. I recommend using a laundry room sink if you have one; otherwise, the kitchen sink works fine. After washing, I laid everything out on towels to dry completely.

Tray of beach trash, all sorts of colors and textures.
Tray of beach trash, all sorts of colors and textures and shapes.
Variety beach trash drying on a burgundy kitchen towel, all sorts of colors and textures.

After everything was completely dry, I stored it in a clear, homemade trash bag until I had time to work on the project.

Large clear bag of beach trash, all sorts of colors and textures.

And yes, I reused the original white trash bag for actual trash at home!

Sorting

In the Spring of 2025, I sorted the trash pieces on two folding tables in my garage.

  • Colorful trash on top of a gray folding table.
  • Colorful trash on top of a gray folding table.
  • Colorful trash on top of a gray folding table.
  • Colorful trash on top of a gray folding table.

Creating

The idea of a fish or a whale came to me because of the shape of the board. Using Aleene’s Tacky glue and Sugru, I attached plastic pieces to the board. I used round flat pieces (one is a paper seal from a Pringles canister) to make the eye; synthetic fabrics to make a mouth; broken toy shovels as tail fins; juice pouches as fins; and water bottles, bottle caps, and other clear plastics became scales. I created the stomach outline from toy bucket straps, and the colorful and identifiable pieces went into the cross-sectional view of the stomach, as if you were viewing the fish’s stomach contents.

Photo of large fish made from a green and black wake board with plastic trash pieces attached to it to make it appear as a fish with a a view of its belly, which is full of plastic trash.
“Belly Full of Trash,” copyright Marie Cullis, 2025.
Zoomed in view of the belly full of trash on the fish.
Close up of the stomach. Copyright Marie Cullis.
Close up view of water bottle caps used as scales on the bottom of the fish.
Copyright Marie Cullis.
Fin made from juice pouches.
Fin made from juice pouches. Copyright Marie Cullis.
Tail fins made from pink and green toy beach shovels.
Tail fins made from pink and green toy beach shovels. Copyright Marie Cullis.
Zoomed in view of the belly full of trash on the fish.
Copyright Marie Cullis.
Zoomed in view of the belly full of trash on the fish.
Copyright Marie Cullis.
Zoomed in view of the belly full of trash on the fish.
Copyright Marie Cullis.
Zoomed in view of the fish's face, made from nylon fabric pieces and a Pringles can seal.
Copyright Marie Cullis.

I could have created anything with these materials, but as I mentioned earlier, raising awareness about marine life ingesting plastic was too important an issue to ignore. Through this piece, I wanted to show not only the environmental damage caused by plastic pollution but also the impact it has on marine life that suffers because of human actions. In the end, I hope it inspires others both to help combat plastic pollution and to express themselves through art. And maybe even inspire change!

Thanks for reading, and please share and subscribe!

Footnotes:

  1. Article, “How Many Marine Animals Die From Plastic Each Year?” Earth.org, November 19, 2021. ↩︎
  2. Page, “The Hellcat V2,” zapskimboards.com, March 7, 2023. ↩︎
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Plastic Art Project #2, “Mermaid’s Grotto”

Mermaid's Grotto, plastic pieces to make the collected items with the mermaid doll at center. Blue, aqua, black background.
“Mermaid’s Grotto,” by Marie Cullis, 2023. Plastic pieces collected from the beach in Duck, North Carolina. Background is acrylic paint on wood board. Copyright Marie Cullis.

About

This was my second plastic art project from beach trash my family collected. We collected the pieces in 2022 and I created this plastic ocean scene in the fall of 2023. Like my previous piece, some of the items are highly recognizable, like the goggles, plastic fork, bottle caps, dental picks, straws, and of course, a broken mermaid doll. Measures 24″ x 24″.

Picking Up Beach Trash

Sunset, orange sun casting an orange glow over the blue ocean, with an orange and pink ombre sky. Pool in foreground but darkened.
Sunset from our balcony in Duck, North Carolina, June 2022.

My family vacationed on the Outer Banks of North Carolina in 2022, traveling to many of the towns up and down the barrier islands. But we stayed in Duck, North Carolina, which is where many of our beach walks and swim days happened. As usual, we picked up trash on all of our walks. When we returned to our rental, I saved as many pieces as I could for a future art piece and washed them. These are a few of the trash piles resulting from the bags of trash we picked up and emptied:

Pile of collected trash.
Pile of collected trash.
Pile of collected trash.

I had quite a bit to sort through! We found several big pieces, but we found many more small pieces of plastic on this end of the island. Especially in the less populated areas of the beach. Those are wonderful to both get off the beach and to use in plastic art projects.

Items We Didn’t Keep

Since we had a long way to travel and a small car, I had to limit what I carted home to a single bag. So, first I decided to recycle all I could – water bottles, soda bottles, paper, and plastic from products like the Sun In and Hawaiian Tropic sunscreen. I opted to throw away very dirty pieces, socks and degraded plastic films. We left behind beach toys for the next family and kept a few too, like these diving toys:

Toy missile diving weights, orange and green.

These barnacled and very dirty snorkel goggles were super cool, but there was no way to clean them enough to travel home with. So I took multiple photos of them:

  • Barnacled and very dirty snorkle goggles, yellow frame with clear and frosted plastic parts.
  • Barnacled and very dirty snorkle goggles, yellow frame with clear and frosted plastic parts.
  • Barnacled and very dirty snorkle goggles, yellow frame with clear and frosted plastic parts.
  • Barnacled and very dirty snorkle goggles, yellow frame with clear and frosted plastic parts.
  • Barnacled and very dirty snorkle goggles, yellow frame with clear and frosted plastic parts.

Another cool item that I didn’t keep was this work or fishing glove because it had so many things stuck to it!

Fishermen's glove, yellow and black.

My Process

Plastic trash laid out on a pink kitchen towel after having been washed again. Goggles, bottle caps, straws, and many other colorful plastics.

I washed everything again when I returned home and dried it thoroughly before storing it for my art project (it was over a year before I had time to work on the art project).

Plastic mermaid doll, green hair and tail.

When I found the broken mermaid doll, I immediately knew this would be the center of my piece. Inspired by The Little Mermaid, this piece of art came together using plastic pieces that look like everyday items, as if she’d collected the items from shipwrecks. Plastic caps became cups and kitchen items. I turned candy wrappers into purses. Other plastic pieces became tools or beauty items, such as the paintbrush, flower barrette, and mini bubble wands. And of course, I had a piece of a fork – that is, a dinglehopper!

Additionally, plastic parts from fireworks became jellyfish and stars. There is a cellophane sun in the upper right corner. Water bottle caps appear as bubbles. Solo cup pieces became sea plants.

I bought a medium-sized piece of wood, a 24-inch square, at the hardware store. I painted the background with acrylic paint.

Square piece of wood, painted with aqua blues, turquoise, green, and black acrylic paint to look like under the ocean, with the center strokes vertically painted to represent a grotto.

The Final Piece

I used Tacky Glue to attach the pieces. I forgot to take photos as the project progressed, though it came together pretty quickly. In this detail, to right of the mermaid doll, you can “items” stacked on her “shelves” that look like beauty item, kitchen items, and maybe even tools. She’s also holding a “purse” and a “wand”:

Section of the art piece showing the mermaid doll and many small plastic pieces representing items she found in shipwrecks.

In the next detail, to the left of the mermaid doll, you can other items such as a paintbrush, part of a pen, a straw, caps, a Swisher Sweets tip, and a disposable razor handle. Below are a couple of “purses” I made from plastic string and wrappers we found. Above those is a plastic piece that looks like a fish!

Section of the art piece showing the mermaid doll and many small plastic pieces representing items she found in shipwrecks.

The next image, showing the bottom right corner, are larger items I used to create sort of a storage bin of items which includes nylon rope, a juice or milk bottle, straws, bottle caps, broken toys, two pairs of broken glasses, and other miscellaneous plastic parts.

Section of the art piece showing the mermaid doll and many small plastic pieces representing items she found in shipwrecks.

Below, in the left corner, I made sea plants from various plastic items including red and yellow broken Solo cups, foam, nylon rope fragments, coiled keychain, orange and black plastic pieces, and green plastic string pieces that likely came from a beach chair that was falling apart.

Section of the art piece showing long plastic pieces I used to make sea plants.

For these jellyfish, I used the plastic from exploded fireworks and plastic ribbon pieces for the tentacles, and plastic wrappers and film bundled on top to create the bodies.

Close-up of jellyfish made from plastic trash pieces on aqua blue background.

Next

Since I did not use all of the pieces from our Outer Banks trip, I’m saving those for a future art project or teaching project.

My next project is going to be created from items I collected on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, during a holiday weekend. Stay tuned for my article on that Plastic Art project!

Feel free to check out my Plastic Art Projects page for other projects that people have done. If you have a plastic trash art piece you’d like to share, please leave me a comment below! Thank you for reading, please share and subscribe!

Copyright © Marie Cullis, 2023, “Mermaid’s Grotto” art piece. All photos in this article by Marie Cullis.
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Plastic Art Project #1

Plastic trash arranged in an ocean scene, colorful plastics with an aqua and sea blue background.
Photo of “St. Augustine, Florida 2021” by Marie Cullis.

About

This was my first plastic art project from beach trash I collected. I collected the pieces in 2021 and created this plastic ocean scene in the summer of 2023. Some of the items are highly recognizable, like the toothbrush, plastic spoons, and dental pick. There’s even the rolled end of an old latex condom in there (sanitized, of course). Measures 12″ x 12″.

Picking Up Beach Trash

My family and I have always picked up trash at beaches wherever and whenever we get to visit them. In fact, on our honeymoon, my husband helped me clean up tires and other debris from St. Pete Beach in Florida. We dutifully bag up collected trash and put it in a dumpster or covered trash receptacle. We donate items like unbroken beach toys and usable clothing (after cleaning).

We spent a week at the beach in St. Augustine, Florida in October 2021, and as usual, we collected all sorts of trash and plastic pieces. This time, I cleaned and saved some of it for a future art piece.

I Didn’t Keep Every Piece

First, I separated the undesirable, donatable, recyclable, and other miscellaneous items that I didn’t intend to use in my artwork. This included items such as a glass bottle we found in the surf (since glass is fully recyclable) that had living barnacles attached to it:

We carefully removed the barnacles and put them back in the water. I couldn’t leave a glass bottle in the surf for obvious reasons, so we tried our best to save the creatures.

Other items I didn’t keep for artwork included rusty metal cans, recyclable plastic water bottles, complete beach toys (which I donated), and oversized objects. Additionally, there was a large white blanket (which we washed and donated), a crusty hat brim, and a used vape pen (which, though pretty, I threw away due to concerns about leftover chemicals):

  • Largw white blanket found on the beach sand at night.
    A large white blanket we found on a night walk.
  • A vape pen, white with a rainbow going across, HQD Cuvie Plus.
    Vape pen, pretty but possibly toxic.
  • Black baseball hat brim, covered in sticky sand.
    Baseball hat brim, covered in sticky sand.

Last, I found this unidentifiable gelatinous piece, which I then believed to be plastic but have now discovered that it may have been a washed-up tunicate, colloquially called a ‘sea pork’:1

Gelatinous but dried up unidentifiable piece.

My Process

While we were still on vacation, I rinsed everything I planned to cart home. In groups, I washed all the pieces thoroughly in dish soap and water and then laid them out to dry:

Batch of plastic trash soaking in dish soap and warm water, in a black tub.
Cleaned colorful plastic pieces drying on a black towel.

I began by painting a sea background on a square piece of wood using acrylic paint. Next, I arranged the plastic pieces, starting with the largest ones, and secured them with glue. At first, I didn’t have a clear vision, but as I experimented with the pieces—arranging and rearranging them like a puzzle—a fishing scene gradually emerged. Here’s a progression of the piece:

  • Progression of plastic trash art piece, blue and green sea background, with colorful pieces making up a fisherman, large fish at center, jellyfish, other creatures, and coral reef at bottom.
  • Progression of plastic trash art piece, blue and green sea background, with colorful pieces making up a fisherman, large fish at center, jellyfish, other creatures, and coral reef at bottom.
  • Progression of plastic trash art piece, blue and green sea background, with colorful pieces making up a fisherman, large fish at center, jellyfish, other creatures, and coral reef at bottom.
Progression of plastic trash art piece, blue and green sea background, with colorful pieces making up a fisherman, large fish at center, jellyfish, other creatures, and coral reef at bottom.
Completed art piece by Marie Cullis.

So we have a fisherperson paddling a boat, hauling ‘sea treasures’ in a net behind them, while a giant fish, a jellyfish, and other sea creatures swim below near a coral reef. Last, I took a soda bottle cap, wrote the title on it, and glued it near the top, as if it represented the sun.

Next

Since this was a small board (12″x12″), I did not use all of the trash pieces, so I’ve saved those for a future art project or teaching project!

My next project was created from items I collected in Duck, North Carolina, in the Outer Banks. Read my article on Plastic Art Project #2!

Feel free to check out my Plastic Art Projects page for other projects that people have done. If you have a plastic trash art piece you’d like to share, please leave me a comment below! Thank you for reading, please share and subscribe!

Copyright © Marie Cullis, 2023, “St. Augustine, Florida 2021” art piece. All photos in this article by Marie Cullis.

Footnote:

  1. Article, “The Secret Life of ‘Sea Pork,’ The Organ-Like Blobs on Your Beach,” by Jessica Leigh Hester, atlasobscura.com, May 15, 2019. ↩︎