“I think having land and not ruining it is the most beautiful art that anybody could ever want.”

Andy Warhol

Can there be beauty in waste?

The answer is yes! Beauty is found in the recycling of it, regenerating it and giving it a new life.

And there are cases in which from waste, contemporary works of art are created.

In the last decades, contemporary art has put the spotlight on the environment and continues to  raise awareness to have a more and more sustainable approach.

Photographers, sculptors, urban artists, there are many artists who have decided to take care of nature by creating works that convey messages that we can no longer afford to ignore. We have chosen three that have used waste materials (plastic, aluminium, etc.) as the raw material to mould to give shape to their creative expression.

Crush: Fabio Ferrone’s sustainable art

Crush is the term that describes Fabio Ferrone’s intolerance in finding waste scattered everywhere and the instinctive desire to crush it to reduce its volume. The onomatopoeic term is a clear reference to the technique with which he creates his works and, that is, crushing waste materials to give them a new life. The waste he uses most are cans, but also buttons and other waste materials. Pop Art by Fabio Ferrone.

Annarita Serra’s art that saves the sea

Annarita Serra’s works tell a story of rebirth, art and new life. Not only that of the materials she uses, but also of herself. The artist had two dreams: to work with art and save the sea and, as an established manager, she changed her life by dedicating it to art and sustainability.

Her works are a tribute to contemporary icons and to characters symbols of our consumer society. Her portraits, created with waste materials recuperated from the Sardinia’s beaches, appear as crystallized images, testimony of how ephemeral everything is, even fame and success.

Droppings and the dam by Arun Kumar

More than seventy thousand caps were needed by Arun Kumar to raise awareness on the issue of environmental sustainability. He collected them all over the world to create a work as impressive as the number of caps that are thrown away every day.

“Droppings and the dam” is the sculpture symbolizing the chosen strategy by Kumar to fight the consumer culture that is overwhelming our society.

Inspired by art, we believe it is a duty to generate and regenerate value without wasting the Earth’s resources. For us at Maca it is the noblest form of investment you could wish for.

Creating innovative packaging that has as little impact on the environment as possible is our form of art because we do it with our hearts rather than with techniques.

Step by step, we are constantly committed to contributing to the creation of a greener future. Our flagship product is the Green Sleeves, labels that rely only on their elastic properties to adapt to the shape of the container and do not need adhesive or heat. We use raw materials from renewable sources. We design recyclable packaging with the ability to easily separate the paper layer from the plastic layer.

Thanks to the correct design of the weight of the paper and the thickness of the plastic films and the type of adhesive for lamination, we have developed a packaging in laminated paper that is both recyclable and compostable. We have also reduced the processes that use solvents in favour of those that use water and continue to invest in technological innovation that allows us to minimize the waste of raw materials and energy. We carry out the overprint on existing wrappers, even if not produced by us, to make corrections, additions, updates to regulations, changes to logos and barcodes, to prevent packaging from becoming waste even if unused or obsolete.

These are just some of our Steps for Respackt.

Find out about our commitment to a more sustainable future.