We use objects that have been designed every day,” says Caroline Saul. “Why shouldn’t they be made out of materials that are reused?”

Caroline is a designer and maker using recycled plastic to create lacy, delicate lampshades, bowls, vases, cards and ornamental objects. She is one of a growing number of artists using society’s ever growing obsession with recycling as a starting point for creativity.

Caroline says her passion is in creating “new materials from objects that might otherwise be thrown away”.

Working mainly with plastic milk bottles, she has developed her own technique for reprocessing them, melting them down to form fresh sheets of plastic infused with textural fibres and warm colours.

“Then I cut out pattern pieces and put them together as various vessels and light shades and sculptures,” she says. “When I was at university lots of people were working with acrylics and resins and I was sure there were other good materials around that were better for the environment and still allowed me to make the things I wanted to make.”

Anna Tilson from Cross Street Studio in Hove is obsessed with breaking old tea sets to make mosaic mirrors, plates, flowerpots or other objects. Her colleague Laila Smith calls it “recycling at its most beautiful”.

“Everybody has a lovely tea set in the back of their cupboard they never use,” says Anna. “They end up at car boots and charity shop. I buy plates, teapots, cups and saucers, give them a new lease of life and make beautiful things out of them.”

The idea of environmental art brings with it the stereotype of dysfunctional, childlike creations that resemble exactly what they are – bits of old rubbish – or of vast protest pieces, such as the WEEE man, a grotesque seven metre high sculpture made out of 3.3 tonnes of waste electrical and electronic equipment, or HA Schult’s trash people, a Terracotta Army for our profligate times.

Caroline insists her work is the exact opposite. “What I try to do is build awareness of recycled art and design,” she says. “It doesn’t have to be clunky. A milk bottle doesn’t have to be made into another milk bottle. It can be made into something aesthetically pleasing.

“Plastic usually gets turned into big structures or park benches. That’s great, but there are other options.”

For Anna, using pre-used objects for her mosaics wasn’t the original inspiration.

“First, I was inspired by floral patterns on plates,”

she explains. “After a while I realised I was using stuff people are just chucking away and became inspired by what a nice thing that is to do.”

Caroline was a little more deliberate in choosing recycled art. Brought up in a waste- concious family before kerbside collections were commonplace, it seemed a natural progression to use her innate material thrift in her work. And anyway, she says, “There is plenty of material around to make stuff from, why use brand new materials?”

Both artists are exhibiting at the Open Houses throughout the Brighton Festival in May. Full details on the Artists Open Houses website at www.aoh.org.uk or pick up a brochure in town.