Kattappana's ecofriendly Spiderman gives plastic from neighbourhood a recycled life
In Idukke's Kattappana, the municipal office has turned waste into a striking public art piece: a towering Spiderman made entirely from reclaimed plastic bottles and scrap metal. The figure, perched on the grounds of the municipal building, instantly draws children and passers‑by who line up for selfies, turning a routine waste‑management site into a lively showcase.
The sculpture emerged from the “Waste to Art” campaign, a partnership between the Haritha Keralam Mission and the municipality. Local officials, sanitation workers, students and artists gathered discarded bottles, caps and old iron rods from the town’s collection booths, stuffing them into a prefabricated metal skeleton before painting the final form. The collaborative effort highlights how community involvement can give new purpose to material that would otherwise linger for centuries.
Municipal Chairman Joy Vettikuzhi describes the piece as a guardian of the environment, a visual reminder that a single plastic bottle can linger for 450 years if ignored. Clean City Manager Atley P. John notes that the tactile curiosity sparked by the installation—'Is this really made of bottles?'—offers a lesson in recycling that traditional signs simply cannot match.
Beyond its Instagram‑friendly appeal, the Spiderman sculpture serves as a concrete example of how municipalities can fuse creativity with sustainability, turning everyday waste into a symbol of civic pride and ecological responsibility.