Sevan city turns waste into works of art through recycling

The uncontrolled spread of the products of human activity has long posed varying degrees of threat to the environment, making waste management a priority.

In Sevan, a city in Armenia’s Gegharkunik Province on the shores of Lake Sevan, an artistic approach has been taken to address this issue, with discarded materials transformed into works of art through recycling, imagination and craftsmanship.

Some of these creations were displayed at the Gegharkunik Province pavilion in the Green Zone of the COP17 conference underway in Yerevan, attracting the attention of local and foreign visitors, particularly when they learned that the puppets, decorative hanging toys, fish-shaped ornaments, stone-like flowerpots made from paper and foam plastic, fabric bags and other items had all been made from recycled materials.

The initiative has been made possible by the efforts and support of dedicated people, helping remove waste from the natural environment while giving discarded materials and objects a new purpose. 

“The idea of sorting and recycling waste had been around for a long time, but it was put into practice in 2022 with the support of the American University of Armenia and funding from the Swedish government. Thanks to the Swedish government’s funding, Sevan acquired waste bins in different colors for sorting waste, allowing plastic, paper, metal and glass items to be separated. High school students then recycle these materials and, with the help of skilled craftspeople, turn them into various items,” Davit Torosyan, an employee of the Sevan Municipality, told Armenpress.

Narine Harutyunyan, head of the municipality’s Department of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports, showed the puppets, explaining that they are made entirely from recycled materials. They were conceived and created at the initiative of Hermine Andrikyan, a theater director by profession. She was assisted by Vigen Hakobyan, an artist and designer at the cultural center, who crafted the puppets’ faces and features. Gohar Mnatsakanyan, head of the local youth club, has also contributed to the project.

“Thanks to everyone's joint efforts, these puppets have been used in more than 20 performances in the community and at various centers. School students in grades 9 and 10 also take part in the performances. Audiences always respond warmly and enthusiastically. Events under the title The Little Prince are held regularly. We have 12 puppets in total, and work is now underway on a new performance,” Harutyunyan said.

Davit Torosyan emphasized that the program has no commercial objectives and is intended simply to make Sevan cleaner, encourage creativity and bring smiles and joy to people. Children sometimes give the items they make as gifts to foreign visitors to the city.

Starting next year, the municipality also plans to introduce a process for producing fertilizer from food waste, which could significantly change conditions at landfills.