A sea of beckoning cats feature in this installation by Central Saint Martins graduate Katie May Boyd.

Called Foreign Garbage, Boyd ? who studied the Material Futures masters course ? used the Maneki-neko cat as a tool for discussion around plastic waste.

According to her research, Boyd found that 30 per cent of waste from the UK was sent to China until March 2018 when China enacted a ban on foreign rubbish.

This created problems for the UK who do not have the domestic infrastructure to dispose of large quantities of waste and had previously relied on China for these purposes.

Boyd's project focuses on the disposal of expanded polystyrene by creating an alternative recycling process to make deflated polystyrene. "Expanded polystyrene is solely used for packaging, so the root of the problem is in fact about an excess of buying rather than an excess of waste," she said.
WATCH NEXT: "Hitomi Hisono reinterprets Wedgwood classics with Japanese aesthetics" - https://youtu.be/c_Bqjt9Ph6k

Subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest architecture and design movies: http://bit.ly/1tcULvh

Like Dezeen on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dezeen/
Follow Dezeen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Dezeen/
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dezeen/
Check out our Pinterest: https://uk.pinterest.com/dezeen/

Video by Katie May Boyd and Nicolas Canal Online

...