The Large Cigarette

Art Project: "The Large Cigarette" 

by Katherine Roizen

            A few weeks ago I participated in the Heal the Bay beach clean-up. I helped clean up the beach and used the trash I collected to create my art project. My art project consists of many cigarettes and a plastic bottle, which I glued together to make one large cigarette. I created my art project to help show that, although people may think that one piece of trash is nothing, all of it combined is a lot of waste. That waste then goes into the ocean and harms the environment because marine mammals mistake the trash for food and die from it. We all need to work together so that we can help solve this problem.

            At the beach clean-up I picked up large amounts of trash; however, I only used cigarettes and a plastic bottle in my art project. I chose to use these items because they were some of the most commonly found pieces of trash found on the beach where we cleaned up. We found about 830 cigarettes and plastic bottles in about an two hours. In fact, I found these items almost every five feet. One can agree that this is quite a lot of waste found in a small amount of time. This inspired me to create my art, which helps show that many single pieces of trash can accumulate into a large amount of waste.

            People need to realize the environmental effects of littering because our entire world may become even more polluted or dangerous for our health and safety. Most people do not understand the consequences of littering, even if it is just one tiny piece of trash. When one is walking along the street and throws their trash on the ground, they typically think to themselves, "It's just one piece of trash, it's not going to harm anyone." They usually do not think of the larger picture: if everyone littered, even just one piece of garbage, it would eventually accumulate into a huge amount of waste that would go through the sewage system and into the ocean. Therefore, I created this 3-D sculpture to help show people the bigger picture of littering in hopes that next time someone is about to throw trash on the ground, they will remember my art and simply throw their garbage into a trashcan.