The medium is the message for small group of green artists

They are all environmental artists, a small band who seek to deliver a green message with their work. Monti Lai Wai-yi paints using the pigment of leaves, Benjamin Hao Lap-yan creates art from soil and liina klauss (who prefers to render her name entirely in lower case) collects rubbish to use as her colour palette.

Eco-art - the use of found materials to create something new and raise awareness about the environment - is still in its infancy in Hong Kong, but the small group of artists believe that despite the challenges, their positive social footprint is growing.

Hong Kong came as a shock to the German klauss when she arrived in 2007. She had been working as a fashion designer in Berlin and her first trip to Shenzhen was a window into the rapidly increasing cycles of fast fashion and consumerism.

The birth of her son soon meant a change of lifestyle, and since her husband had a secure job, klauss was in the fortunate position of being able to carefully choose what she wanted to do.

"Did I want to continue to do fashion and be part of this cycle of production or do something closer to my heart that I see as more meaningful? The moment I made the decision, I felt so much more at home," she says.

The turning point came in 2011 when klauss and her family were camping at Tai Long Wan on Lantau. Dismayed by the amount of rubbish that washed up on shore and became caught in the trees close to the campsite, she began gathering armloads of the material.

Creating something from nothing was not new to klauss - in Berlin she had created artworks from old books and newspapers - and she began sorting the rubbish by colour and then size.