An eight foot monster made from litter appeared in Monmouth Town centre last Sunday morning (September 19).

As part of Monmouth’s climate festival, Monty, the eight foot statue is constructed entirely from discarded items and is taking a seat outside of Cornwall House on Monnow Street.

Creator and artist Pat Handley built the eye-catching mascot from litter retrieved from the group’s litter picks.

Monty proudly sports some of the more unusual items retrieved by the group as fashion accessories. These include sun glasses, drinking bottles, a pocket calculator, swimming goggles and even a doll’s head.

The art installation is just the first of the litter group’s contributions to Monmouth’s climate festival this week. A ’monster’ litter pick has been organised to cover every road in Monmouth. This has never been done before and the litter group will be monitoring progress on a large street plan on display through the week of the climate festival. The street plan can be found outside of Monmouth Shire Hall.

Jim Handley of Monmouth Litter Group told the Beacon: "The idea behind both of these events is to focus on the anti litter theme and to encourage ongoing community responsibility about this."

Monmouth Litter Group, a sub-committee of Monmouth Town Council has been improving the town for residents and visitors for over five years. In July the group, with the help from Wyedean Canoe Club volunteers, cleaned a section of the Wye, from Symonds Yat down to Redbrook.

Earlier this month, the Beacon reported on a boom the group placed across the river Monnow as part of a way to measure the amount of waste making its way into the Wye.

As part of the Climate Future Festival which is taking place in Monmouth this week (September 20-26), the Monty installation focuses on the theme of waste. It hopes to help people think about the waste we produce and where it goes, whether it’s household waste, packaging, clothes food and electronic devices. This wing of the climate festivals encourages people to take stock of how each of us can reduce waste.

Monmouth Litter Group are active outside of this week’s festival. Not only to they help the town by litter picking for several local events, but volunteers also carry out monthly litter picks.