A SCULPTURE created entirely of rubbish is on the cards for Callington to highlight the issue the town has with litter.

The idea for the creation came from two Callington residents — Mikkie Raphael and Freya Eldred, an art and design student in Plymouth.

Mikkie, who jointly set up Callington Volunteer Litter Pick Group with Callington Councillor Andrew Long in January last year, has collected so much rubbish that it was decided to build a sculpture highlighting how much litter was discarded in the town.

With a dream of creating a cleaner Callington, Mikkie said that support for the litter picking group had grown, as had the town’s willingness to support the venture and show ‘community spirit’.

But, said Mikkie, the problem of litter in Callington needed to be highlighted further. He approached his friend Freya and the pair of them came up with creating a two-metre-high ‘Kit Hill’ stack out of rubbish.

Last year the group collected three tonnes of rubbish — and this year, to date, the group has already exceeded that amount.

Mikkie added: ‘The litter pick I am involved in means I deal with a lot of rubbish and I wanted to do something symbolic with it and to really show how much waste there is around Callington — and to highlight the local environment and the local ecology by using local landmarks.’

Callington Town Council members met last month and agreed to support Mikkie and the Callington Litter Pick Group in the request to build a sculpture from collected litter.

Cllr Karen Gold proposed, seconded by Cllr Long, to support the group in any way possible.

Callington town clerk Helen Dowdall said: ‘Mikkie set up the litter picks in the town that take place once a month. The group of litter pickers have collected so much over the year that they want to bring the message back to the community and want to build a sculpture with the rubbish.

‘The town council feel we should encourage him as he has taken it upon himself to stand up for what he believes in.

‘If he needs a bit of space to build the sculpture then we should work with him because he’s trying to bring the message home to the community that this is their rubbish.’

The locations considered for the sculpture include the town hall.

Mikkie thanked the local community and businesses for supporting the group.

• All abilities are welcome to volunteer at the monthly litter picks and all the equipment needed is provided. Check the Callington Volunteer Litter Pick Facebook page for updates.