Henk Loorbach's 'Litterbugs' turns beach plastic into insect sculptures

Designer Henk Loorbach has created 'Litterbugs,' a series of insect-like sculptures assembled from plastic waste collected from beaches and urban environments. The project draws a parallel between the decline of insect populations and the accumulation of plastic pollution. Each sculpture is made from found fragments such as bottle caps, straws, and fishing line, which are cut and combined into hybrid creatures that retain the recognizability of their original forms. The works are displayed in reused containers like cigar boxes, drawers, and frames, evoking natural history collections but substituting disposable materials for biological specimens. The small scale of the pieces encourages close inspection, mirroring how both insects and microplastics often go unnoticed. Loorbach's process begins by noticing a shape or detail in the waste that suggests a form, resulting in compositions that carry traces of previous use. The project reframes waste and loss as interconnected phenomena, suggesting that what we discard and what is disappearing may be more closely linked than they appear.