Toronto artist transforms pollution from Lake Ontario into floating art

Nearly 100K piece of trash pulled from harbour Nearly 100,000 pieces of plastic trash was removed from the Toronto Harbour in 2022 with the help of 10 Seabins.

A large floating art installation along Toronto’s waterfront was crafted in the hopes people will pause and take stock of the pollution that exists all around us.

“We produce so much waste as a global society,” artist-in-residence Emily Chudnovsky told CTV News Toronto on Tuesday.

“How can we use less material and how can we learn from the natural world, which has many different systems for filtering waste, repurposing waste and not producing waste.”

Wrapped in willow branches and invasive plants from Lake Ontario, the art piece features a number of items found or collected by the University of Toronto’s Trash Team, including plastic fragments, sawdust, polypropylene bags and microplastic pellets.

Some of the most surprising items within the piece, Chudnovsky said, are coconut shells, sunglasses, and small toys.

Pine resin was used as an adhesive to keep the six-by-six-foot structure in place.

“It's got quite a sort of wild quality to it,” she said.

“I really went to great lengths to try to make sure that it was non-toxic and to consider every element of the construction so that the wildlife that interacts with it would be safe.”

Chudnovsky began the project over a year ago, inspired by invasive floating plants that assist in the filtering of microplastics from waterways. She is the first artist-in-residence to collaborate with the Trash Team, a group of U of T students, researchers, volunteers and staff working to reduce plastic pollution.

The team uses seabins, similar to a floating garbage can, to collect waste in Lake Ontario. Between May and September of last year, about 100,000 small pieces of plastic were found and removed from Lake Ontario as a result.

The art installation, aptly named “Tangle,” will be available for viewing at Peter Street Basin along Queen’s Quay at Toronto’s harbourfront until September. Afterwards, Chudnovsky hopes to find it another home where people “can see the more intricate details.”

She is also partnering with the Trash Team on another piece using their research on microfibers.