VIDEO: Marble Arch replica made out of rubbish highlights litter plight

A replica of London's iconic Marble Arch has been built from litter collected from the streets of Westminster - notably Oxford Street, Regent's Street and Bond Street in one day - a total of 120 bags.


Artist Miguel Romo, who has 10 years of producing art projects involving recycling and reclaimed objects, built the mini arch, where it will remain on public view for 10 days.

Westminster City Council, with the help of partners the New West End Company and Veolia, commissioned the piece to launch its ‘Your Streets’ Campaign to make people more responsible and aware for their own litter.

The arch installation is designed to show how much litter is dropped everyday despite all the bins that Westminster Council provides, and the mess it would cause if it wasn’t swept up by the council’s contractor Veolia.

Veolia’s contract manager in Westminster, Scott Edgell, said: “This is a great initiative that emphasises the huge amount of work we put into keeping the streets of Westminster clean. We hope that it will make people think twice about how they dispose of their litter.”

Westminster Council spends around £14m on its street cleansing operations every year.

Maxine Perella

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