THE eco efforts of a group of Thurrock people will be displayed in a shop window in Grays tomorrow (Tuesday, 17 January).

The Thurrock SIP Open Door group meet at the Beehive Resource Centre in the town each Tuesday evening and have joined the Grays Beachcomber litter-picks in the town on Sunday mornings using the experience to explore environmental issues as well as socialising with members of the public.

While on the litter picks they have been collecting "Plastic Gems" that have then been cleaned and sorted. A plastic gem being anything that caught their eye, because of its colour, its completeness or just because of their curiosity or surprise.

They then spent a few Tuesday evenings working as a team to use some of the pieces to make a piece of art.

Among the materials used are Smartie packet lids and some that have been found have been matches to advertising campaigns in the late sixties and early seventies making them more than 50 years old.

A spokesperson for the group said: "We used small plastic "gems" that we had collected from the foreshore at Grays Beach.

"Our objective was to illustrate the negative impact of discarded plastics on the environment - especially on marine wildlife. We hope this piece of art helps illustrate just how long plastic can last once discarded, as some of the objects in this display are over 50 years old (Rowntree Smartie lids) and as you can see many are still in pristine condition.

"Looking at the different things we have found, we think most items have been dropped on the street before being washed down the storm drains and into the river while other pieces have been flushed down the toilet and travelled through the sewerage system.

"Looking closely at the turtle shell, you will notice the turtle tells us we must dispose of all our rubbish responsibly, using recycling bins wherever possible. Looking even closer at the rubbish you might notice the grains of worn-down plastic which were also found on the edge of the river – unfortunately fish and other marine creatures might mistake these granules for food and eat them."

Tomorrow, from about 4 to 6pm the group are going to dress the window of one of the shops in the town centre precinct (near Burger King) which will include displaying their artwork.