A Green Party candidate in Ontario has decided he doesn't want plastic lawn signs, instead opting for recycled cardboard and paper yard waste bags to get his name out to potential voters.

Tom Cull is the party's candidate in the southwestern Ontario riding of London-Fanshawe. He's also London's former poet laureate and the organizer of a monthly river cleanup.

"We are always picking up plastic out of the river and we have picked up campaign signs in the past," said Cull. "I am a new candidate so I don't have a shed full of campaign signs.

Culls says his campaign presented an opportunity to find an alternative to plastic.

"I'm enacting who I am as a community member."

Green Party Candidate Tom Cull used recycled cardboard and wheat paste to silkscreen his name on campaign signs. (Tom Cull)

Cull gathered supporters to his home for a sign making party, and partnered with an artist who created a wheat paste to put his name and the party logo onto recovered cardboard.

"My artist friend taught herself the process of photo emulsion screen printing because we've been talking about how we can rethink campaign signs. The great thing about art is that it involves creativity," Cull said.

"We've used the recovered cardboard and cut it into sign shapes, and then we thought, 'why don't we do this on leaf bags,' so we purchased 100 of them and used the same process on them."

'Perfect opportunity'

When people contact the campaign for a lawn sign, they are offered a yard waste bag or one of the cardboard signs. There's also a printable sign that people can download themselves and stick on their own recycled cardboard.

"We don't want to judge anyone else's campaign. There are other candidates who are using plastic signs that they've used before," Cull said.

"We thought this was a perfect opportunity because we haven't invested in the plastic signs, so why start now?"