(Photo: Festival Inspire NB)
You may have been familiar with the the Trash Turtle mural near Riverfront Park.
Unfortunately, it is now missing.
Co-Founder of Festival Inspire Lisa Griffin said the wood turtle art piece, made entirely of recycled products was recently taken down.
“Because it is right on the waterfront, it is quite windy down there. It was exposed a lot,” added Griffin. “A lot of the time, we would have to re-screw or bolt or anchor the pieces back onto the wall. So it was a continual maintenance project. It has been five years, and I had a conversation with the owner of the wall, and we decided to replace it with something else.”
Griffin mentioned all of the materials from the turtle have been properly disposed of thanks to a partnership with Eco 360.
The trash turtle mural was inspired by the wood turtle through a partnership with the Petitcodiac Watershed.
“Wood turtles are a local animal,” noted Griffin. “They are often affected by single use disposable plastics, and when single use disposable plastics are disposed of, they don’t just go away. Sometimes they end up in our waterways, and sometimes they end up affecting quite commonly the turtle. The turtle can choke on a little bottle cap or that little plastic piece around the end of the bottle cap or a piece of a lighter. There’s all these disgusting single use plastics that end up in our waterways. So, it was an education piece.”
Griffin expects a replacement for this summer.
The new piece will be created in an existing partnership between Festival Inspire NB, which will be held in Moncton in July, along with the Starving Artists Cafe and Shane Myers.
