By Molly Bishop

Betty, the life-sized basking shark made from second-hand electronics, is paying a visit to the Thistles Centre in Stirling.

The art sculpture is made entirely out of second-hand electronics such as keyboards and water cooler panels. Inside Betty’s mouth, there are TV screens which show a documentary highlighting the amount of e-waste that is shipped across the sea every year. Betty was created to be interactive, and it encouraged visitors to stand close to her mouth to watch the documentary.

She was made by Edinburgh artist Johnathan Elders to raise awareness of Scotland’s electronic waste problem. Elders previously stated: “I chose the basking shark, as I encountered one as a child whilst on a boat trip to Bass Rock in North Berwick.

“As a nation, we have so much to be proud of – like these magnificent creatures – but we also have a massive problem that we’re just not doing enough to address.”

Betty has been all over the country, from the National Museum of Scotland to The Glasgow Science festival. She has made her most recent stop at Thistles.

Gary Turnbull, Centre Director at The Thistles Centre, said: “We’re excited to have welcomed Betty into the centre as not only is it a fantastic sculpture, but it is also a great way to educate our shoppers on the problem of electronic waste which faces us all.”

The Thistles Centre earlier this year brought back its Wolf Pack Kids Club, which focuses on teaching kids how to help save the planet. It is hosted on the last Sunday of each month and has been running since February this year, each month having a theme centred around sustainability and kindness.

E-waste is when electrical appliances that are broken or unwanted are discarded and sent to landfills, instead of being repaired or recycled. The UN recognised this as the fastest-growing waste stream on the planet, and it is predicted that electronic waste will reach 74 million tonnes by 2030.

According to recent figures, the UK produced the second-largest amount of e-waste out of all the UN nations at around 23.9kg. Zero Waste Scotland found that just 7% of electronic equipment was recycled last year. Another study found that nearly three-quarters of the Scottish public admitted to throwing electrical items into landfill bins.

Residents of Scotland can contact their local authorities for information about how to recycle their electrical items.