New seahorse sculpture at Plymouth station

It's made from single use items

A seahorse sculpture has made waves at Plymouth train station as the city’s litter pickers continue to rise up against the blight of single-use items.

Clean Our Patch CIC is using a £15,000 grant from Great Western Railway’s Customer and Community Improvement Fund to continue its fight to clean up and educate communities across Plymouth and the South Hams.

The sculpture, The Ballad of Lost Mary, featured some of the 4,000 vapes collected by volunteers throughout 2023. It has been on display across the city since June, but its station showcase was its last before being disassembled and the vapes recycled.

Group founders, Ash Samuels and El Clarke, said:

“The sculpture was symbolic of not only the blight of these vapes but also the blight of single use items within society. The hand rising up from the pile of vapes represents the constant struggle to rise above consumerism and protect nature and in turn the planet. If we all work together change is possible and we can make significant change to the world around us.”    

GWR West Regional Development Manager, David Whiteway, said:

“The Customer and Community Improvement Fund is a fantastic opportunity for us to invest in our communities in projects that make a difference at a local level.

“We have supported Clean Our Patch CIC on previous occasions and seen first-hand the brilliant work they do to educate and help to clean up our local communities.”

Clean Our Patch CIC was formed in March 2018 and has since collected more than 93,000 bags of litter from across the city.

It plans to use the bulk of its £15,000 grant to form independent litter-picking hubs capable of looking after their own neighbourhoods, as well as launching an art project linked to trains.