Cost-Effective and Eco-Friendly Sculptural Materials from Recyclable Waste Materials for the Teaching and Learning of Sculpture in Ghana

Abstract

The global search for more eco-friendly, cost-effective and alternative sculpture materials to be used in the deployment of teaching and learning has been pursued by scholars in sculpture lately. This has been driven by the need to find alternative sculpture materials in the local environment of students, especially waste materials to replace the expensive conventional sculpture materials that cannot be purchased by majority of the students at the Senior School level in Ghana. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to experiment with various recyclable environmental waste materials such as styrofoam food containers, teak leaves and water sachets to find out if they could be potential cast materials for use during practical lessons in sculpture. The inquiry was carried out using the studio-based research design under the qualitative research methods. The material choice, binders used, recycling procedural steps and their casting processes. Moreover, the strengths and weaknesses in each of the recyclable waste materials as cast materials in comparison with the conventional sculpture materials such as Plaster of Paris, Cement, and resin were detailed. The results showed that aside from the cost-effectiveness and eco-friendly nature of the recyclable waste materials, they possessed significant properties similar to the conventional materials such as hardness, tensile strength, and natural textural qualities. The study contends that sculpture teachers must assist their students to be innovative in exploring the local waste materials as potential materials to be used for sculptural production for their sculpture practical lessons.