Our friend Barbara De Pirro has been busy working on her labor-intensive recycle art installations all over the Pacific Northwest.

Flourish by Barbara De Pirro at On the Fringe, Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts 2015

The amount of plastic bottles, plastic caps, and plastic bags that she crochets, weaves, staples, and strings together to create her colorful pieces is impressive.

Flora, Flourish 1 & 2, Metamorphosis, Roots & Vines by Barbara DePirro at Arts at the Port, Anacortes Arts Festival 2015

The fact that there is so much plastic waste is depressing — Americans alone discard over 33.6 million tons of plastic each year. Plastics are a plague upon this planet.