This August, a 6-foot by 13-foot long whale sculpture, made from recycled materials, will travel to various locations, cleanups, and events to collect cans, bottles, and other recyclable materials along the San Diego/Tijuana coastline.
The DesBorder: Together for a Cleaner Environment project began with Tracy Dezenzo, who wanted to tackle coastal waterway pollution through artistic avenues. After discovering that San Diego won its bid to be the 2024 World Design Capital and that the organization was seeking community-based proposals, Dezenzo explained that she saw an opportunity “to have a worldwide platform to promote her idea and invite as many people as possible to a beach cleanup event.”
Dezenzo has since collaborated with the CEO of nonprofit Cans4Books Trisha Goolsby. Together, Dezenzo said that the project “combines recycling, education, and art to tackle coastal waterways pollution and support the children of our communities.”
DesBorder will officially kick off with a cleanup event and launching of the whale sculpture at 8 a.m. on Aug. 3 at Sunset Cliffs Natural Park. It is additionally a 2024 World Design Capital-endorsed community initiative, according to the DesBorder website.
Dezenzo explained that choosing the sculptor’s shape occurred organically. Alongside Point Loma sculptor Matt Nelson, the pair decided to “make the shape simple and fun but, it also needed to be practical and make it easy to remove the recycling, so we landed on a whale shape,” Goolsby said.
Students from San Diego State University then worked to design the whale after visiting a local scrap yard to gather inspiration from the reusable materials present
“Our whale sculpture will be a traveling, visual reminder of what we are striving to protect,” Dezenzo said.
The collected cans and plastic bottles will then be used to purchase and distribute free and accessible children’s books — the primary mission of Cans4Books. Since the organization’s inception in 2020, Cans4Books has recycled more than 10,000 pounds of aluminum cans and plastic bottles and donated over 8,000 children’s books to Little Free Libraries, local elementary schools, and community events, said Goolsby.
The Cans4Books team will also hold a contest to name the whale following the sculpture’s launch in August.
Those interested in reserving the DesBorder whale for upcoming events and cleanups and learning more about the project can visit https://desborder.org/whale-sculpture/.
