Empty plastic bottles and cardboard boxes may seem like garbage to some, but in the hands of Kuros Zahedi, they’re transformed into art.

Zahedi, 34, will show how Saturday when he gathers the litter volunteers collect at Maritime Heritage Park in Bellingham and turns it into a work of art before their eyes as part of events commemorating Earth Day, which is on Tuesday.

The Bellingham artist graduated from the University of Oregon in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in geography and biology and teaches woodworking at Whatcom Hills Waldorf School.

He spoke recently to The Bellingham Herald about finding meaning in what others throw away.

What is your goal as an artist?

I’m making something precious, art, from garbage. But the real transformation I want to create is in people’s souls. I want to change people’s outlook on the world. Are we part of the universe or separate? I think we are a part of it. We are at odds with our environment because we are trying to conquer it.

How did you get the idea to make art out of garbage?

I was walking in Gas Works Park in Seattle and I saw all this garbage washed up on shore. I had the idea of cleaning it up and making it into something, but that was axed by the parks department because it was a contaminated site.

The head of the department suggested I do it at Golden Gardens Park. I created a serpentshaped dragon made of laurel, ivy and other invasive species. The dragon was a devil, a monster. It represented the greed and materialism stuck in the human psyche.

What was the first piece of art you created using garbage?

I was living next to a preschool in lower Wallingford in Seattle, and I decided to clean up all of the trash on my block. I created a weirdo-man made of beer cans, old liquor bottles, rotting wood and syringes. He was life-size and had a syringe coming out of his arm. He had candy wrappers for eyes.

What will you do at Maritime Heritage Park?

People will be given gloves and garbage bags, and from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. we will pick up every piece of litter we can find. The garbage will be sorted out by color and texture. I will then create my piece while people watch.

The piece will be left until Sunday at 3 p.m., and then myself and more volunteers will sort it by recyclables and take it to the dump.

Anyone is welcome to volunteer, and I want to encourage the public to attend.

Is it difficult to recycle a project you have created?

No, I don’t mind it. I just want the seeds planted in people’s minds. Where does garbage come from, and where does it go? I want people to think about that.

I know what I do is little, and it’s not going to change the world. But at least it is a small contribution to our goodness.