This artist’s recycled trash sculptures help people reconnect with nature

In a world overwhelmed by waste and increasingly detached from the natural world, a tribe of towering wooden trolls is quietly reshaping how people think about trash and the planet. Their creator is a Danish artist with a deep love for stories, recycling, and the magic of the forest.

Thomas Dambo, a self-described “garbage artist,” has built over 150 troll sculptures across the globe, from Puerto Rico’s coastlines to South Korea’s forests. His work blends sustainability, folklore, and public art into a striking new genre of environmental storytelling. 

As climate anxiety rises and natural spaces disappear, Dambo’s whimsical creatures are doing something few public campaigns have managed: pulling humans away from their screens and back into the wild.

Building giants from what the world throws away

Each troll is made almost entirely from reclaimed materials that include shipping pallets, fallen branches, construction debris, and lumber yard scraps. These aren’t modest pieces; Dambo’s trolls are colossal: many stretch over 30 feet tall, with arms the length of trucks and feet the size of bathtubs.

And yet, despite their scale, they carry a quiet intimacy. They blend into the trees. They crouch behind bushes. They invite people to look up, to explore, to wonder.

“It’s an advertising campaign for trash,” Dambo once said. “If people thought recycling was cool, we’d be less wasteful.”

His most recent installation in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota features five trolls built in collaboration with the local nonprofit Project 412. The group commissioned the project to not only boost tourism but also spark a deeper sense of environmental connection within the community.

Already, the “troll effect” — a term coined to describe the dramatic uptick in footfall wherever Dambo’s trolls appear — is in motion.

In Coastal Maine, where five of Dambo’s trolls arrived at the botanical gardens in 2021, annual visitors jumped from 100,000 to over 340,000. The increase in visitors directly enabled the gardens to invest more heavily in local conservation efforts, particularly in protecting native trees.

“We were hardly doing any of that before the trolls arrived,” said Gretchen Ostherr, CEO of the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.

A global movement rooted in local magic

Each troll is part sculpture, part story.

Dambo writes fairy tales for each of his creations, giving them names like Ronny Funny Face or Barefoot Frida, and often weaving them into local histories, landscapes, and myths.

In Puerto Rico, one of his earliest trolls — Hector the Protector — stood guard by the sea until Hurricane Maria tore him down. In 2019, Dambo returned to rebuild Hector, this time with a lantern in his hand to guide boats in a storm.

But not all trolls have lived happily ever after.

In Breckenridge, Colorado, a troll named Isak Heartstone had to be removed after overwhelming crowds and parking troubles strained the local infrastructure. Isak was later rebuilt on a more accessible trail, a reminder that even the most well-meaning public art must navigate the complicated relationship between access, preservation, and scale.

And that, in many ways, is what Dambo’s trolls are about: complexity. They are gentle giants, yes, but they’re also quiet provocateurs, challenging our consumption patterns, our ideas about art, and our role in nature.

Why this matters on Earth Day — and every day

The global climate crisis isn’t just about emissions or melting ice caps. It’s also about disconnection. People cannot protect what they don’t love, and they can’t love what they no longer see or understand.

In a time of digital overload and environmental detachment, Dambo’s trolls function like mythological messengers, bringing play, purpose, and pause back into the landscape.

They offer a simple but urgent message: trash isn’t worthless. Nature isn’t optional. And wonder may be one of the most powerful tools we have in the fight for the planet.

As the world marks another Earth Day, Dambo’s work is a poignant reminder that sustainability isn’t always about sacrifice. Sometimes, it’s about imagination.

And sometimes, the path back to nature begins not with facts or fear, but with a troll.