CNN  — 

These sculptures started their life as everyday items: bottles, bags, boxes that were at some point thrown away and became marine pollution.

They finally ended up on a beach in Oregon, where they were collected by volunteers at the request of the Washed Ashore project, a non-profit organization that uses art to educate about environmental conservation.

The project started in 2010 and since then about 40,000 pounds of waste plastic - enough to fill a shipping container - have been collected and turned into giant sea life sculptures depicting the very creatures that are threatened by the debris.

Angela Haseltine Pozzi

Artist Angela Haseltine Pozzi kicked off Washed Ashore in Bandon, Oregon seven years ago with the help of volunteers: “One day i saw this long mosaic lane of plastic spilling up on my favorite beach. I saw all these people picking up shells along the shoreline, and I though ‘Those people need to pick up the trash instead,’” she told CNN.

There are now around 70 sculptures. Washed Ashore has a permanent exhibit in Bandon, Oregon, with itinerant exhibits around the US.

Sculptures will be on display until 5 September at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, DC, and until 25 September at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, Georgia.

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