Meet the British man making art out of discarded face masks
A British man is making the most out of the pandemic by making unique art in his backyard.
Nottingham native Thomas Yates, 45, was made redundant from a brewery at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
After working there for five years, he found himself with an abundance of extra time.
Tom decided to take to the streets and use his working hours to clean the streets of discarded litter.
On his travels in his local area, he noticed he was collecting a lot of abandoned face masks and decided to make art out of them in his own backyard.
After he creates his artworks, he collects all of the rubbish and sends it off to be properly recycled.
His images of unusual art have attracted hundreds of followers on social media, as his artworks only continue to grow.
"I have questioned myself. Why am I making art out of litter? And then when you see the end results, I think they're quite good," he said to the BBC.
A spokesperson for his local council area applauded his efforts of cleaning the streets.
The council spokesperson said, "We would like to thank Thomas for his excellent work and all the many volunteers who already litter pick in their local communities regularly and help keep our streets, parks and open spaces even tidier."
Image credits: Instagram @averagegradient