Reusing Baby Food Jars

My two kids are past the baby food stage, but I still have a collection of glass baby food jars that I like to reuse for making container candles. Cheers to Earth's Best Baby Food for holding a contest to collect people's ideas for how to reuse glass baby food jars. Check out their web site for the winning ideas. Ideas relevant to the holidays include the jar Christmas tree, hot cocoa holiday gift kit, and place cards for dinner parties.

Deck the Halls With Reused Materials

It's the holiday season, so for the next few weeks, I'll focus on reuse as it applies to our winter holiday celebrations. Have a look at the Wrap Art web site, which provides some unique suggestions for wrapping gifts using a variety of materials. Their "repurposing materials" section features some eye-catching packages wrapped up in bits of reused materials such as junk mail, calendar photos, a wine bottle mesh, foil and strings from shopping bags, and bits of ribbon among other things. It's nice to know that I'm not the only person who saves little bits of this and that in crow-like fashion just knowing that someday I'll find a nice way to reuse them. The "recycling commerce" section is cool too. I especially like the use of stickers found in junk mail (which I either give to my kids to play with or use to decorate my filing cabinet); I'm going to have to try that one!

It takes time and creativity to wrap your gift in a way like those displayed on the Wrap Art site, and that puts all the more "thought" into the "thought that counts." Even if the gift inside goes over like a lead balloon, the recipient will surely feel special if you put so much energy into presenting them with a one-of-a-kind package. And when you reuse materials before you recycle them, the Earth gets a gift too.

UW-Stout Holds Reuse Art Competition

The University of Wisconsin-Stout is hosting the 2nd Annual Recyclable Art Competition on November 11 at 7 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Memorial Student Center. As Tasha Sookochoff writes in her article on the subject from the 10/30/08 edition of the Stoutonia,

"The purpose of the competition is to celebrate America Recycles Day and to reward members of the Menomonie community for creatively reusing their recyclables. The event will also feature live music and environmental games for all ages...The Recyclable Art Competition has grown in the last year and features many categories for people of all ages and skills to showcase their artistic talents. Entries will be judged by both UW-Stout art instructors and a popular vote. The only requirement for the artwork is that it be made from recycled materials. Prizes from numerous local businesses will be awarded to the winners of the competition."

I only read about this today, so if you're just reading this post and you're in the UW-Stout area, I'm afraid you've missed the deadline to register for the competition (it was Nov. 1). However, it sounds like a neat event, and I encourage to attend if you have the chance and check out the creativity of your local reuse artists (even though the focus is on recycling, what is really happening in many entries is reuse of materials which could then be recycled). Attendees will have a chance to cast votes for the work they like the best; winners are chosen based on the popular vote and the votes of judges, which include UW-Stout art instructors. See the registration page for more information on the location, including a link to a map.

It should be noted that although the event is being held on November 11, America Recycles Day is November 15 each year. See the National Recycling Coalition web site for more information on America Recycles Day.

Call For Submissions: 1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse

Check out the Extreme Craft website describing a new book being compiled of "examples of craft, art and design made out of repurposed, reused and recycled materials." The author, Garth Johnson, is requesting submissions for examples of paper craft; art; jewelry and accessories; clothing; fiber and fabric; housewares and furnishings; houses, interiors and environments; "geekcraft" and "mancraft;" and other sorts of projects deemed "unclassifiable." Descriptions of these categories are given on the Extreme Craft website. The deadline for submissions is January 5, 2009. Compensation is limited to the chance to see your work and web address in print, along with business that may be generated as a result and participation in the reuse art community that will come together to submit items for consideration. For details on exactly how to submit ideas, see the official call for submissions.

DOE Uses Reuse Art to Promote Recycling

The U.S. Department of Energy recently kicked off its Recycle My Old Fridge Campaign, to encourage citizens to replace their old, energy inefficient refrigerators with more modern, efficient models, and to recycle the old appliances. According to a news release dated 8/27/08, the DOE states "If Americans replaced all pre-1993 refrigerators with ENERGY STAR models, the saved energy could generate enough power for more than 8.1 million homes yearly and save the consumers more than $4.7 billion."

As part of the campaign, the DOE held a special exhibit at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. of refrigerators transformed into works of art by students, consumers, organizations, artists, utility companies and retailers. The exhibit ran from August 25 to September 2, but if you missed out on seeing it live, you can still check out all the cool works of reuse refrigerator art on the campaign web site. My personal favorites are the slot machine and the football player.

Reuse vs. Recycling

Recycling is certainly an important activity when it comes to conserving our resources and decreasing our negative environmental impact, but I believe that all too often, people forget about reuse. If we reuse our materials as much as possible before recycling them, then we will get even more mileage out of our limited resources. But just what is the difference between reuse and recycling? I find a lot of people use the terms interchangeably, so I thought it would be worth defining the words and pointing out the differences.

In their book Choose to Reuse, Nikki and David Goldbeck outline the differences between reuse and recycling in their introduction. The following is an excerpt from that introduction:

Reuse is often confused with recycling, but they are really quite different. (Even those engaged in reuse frequently refer to it as recycling.) There are two types of reuse: primary and secondary. Primary reuse is the reutilization of an item for the same purpose--for example, retreading a tire. Secondary reuse involves employing an item again for a different purpose--for example, using the tire to construct an artificial reef. Recycling, on the other hand, is the reprocessing of an item into a new raw material for use in a new product--for example, grinding the tire and incorporating it into a road-surfacing compound.

So, while both reuse and recycling involve using a particular material again rather than sending it to the landfill, the difference lies in the fact that recycling involves reprocessing the material back into a raw material, or building block, from which new products can be made. Reuse is simply using the material over again without breaking it down into building blocks again. If you reuse a sheet of paper that has only been printed on one side, you're not altering the original piece of paper--just flipping it over to use the blank side. If you recycle that paper, you tear it up, mix it with water, make pulp, lay it into new sheets and dry the new paper. So, if you reuse something BEFORE you recycle it, you're conserving more energy, water, fuel, labor, etc.

So by all means, keep recycling, but when possible, reuse first!

The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard

This straightforward film effectively explains the use and abuse of materials in our society, from extraction of natural resources to production to distribution, consumption and disposal, highlighting the flaws in this linear system all along the way. Leonard explains terms like "planned obsolescence" and "perceived obsolescence" is simple terms with visual assistance from stick-figure animation. Beyond the film itself, the website provides a dearth of resources for further information on consumption, resource use and waste, available by clicking "Learn More" under each of the section headings along the top navigation bar, and by clicking on the link to get 10 more recommendations for another way at the end of the film. You can even get an annotated script if you're a teacher interested in giving students copies for reference or if you want to stage your own version of the Story of Stuff in your classroom. And the Story of Stuff Blog is definitely being added to my feed reader.

Great Green Art in the Great White North

Check out this article by Dawnell Smith from the Anchorage Daily News (8/2/08) describing Unique Ways Studio, a "space dedicated to art through conservation and conservation through art. Here, artists Linda Warford and Jerelyn Miyashiro want to turn bags, boxes, paper, CD cases, scrap metal, electrical wire and all kinds of waste into objects of beauty and utility." Hey, they sound like my kinda folks! "Though its programming is still evolving, Unique Ways offers everything from collaborative studio hours to workshops on bookbinding with waste paper and making totes from plastic grocery bags, always stressing how the ethos and aesthetics of reusing materials entwine, Miyashiro said." Find out more at the Unique Ways Studio web site.

Thought Provoking Art: HA Schult and Chris Jordan

If you've never visited How Can I Recycle This?, a web site produced in the UK focusing on ideas for recycling and reusing virtually any material, take a moment to check it out. If you have a material that you want to find a use for, you can send the suggestion to them to discuss and open up for comments from other readers. My one complaint about this inspirational site is that you can't browse by category anywhere except on the archives page, and even there, the topics listed don't seem to include all of the categories into which posts are placed. That's a personal thing--I like to see the categories that are available because I might not think to search by a particular phrase.

There have been a few interesting art projects discussed on How Can I Recycle This? recently, that I thought were worth pointing out. The first is HA Schult's Trash People. Schult installs an army of 1000 humanoid figures composed of garbage in various locations around the world in a stunning display that connects us to our waste and shows us that we are what we throw away. It's thought provoking and potential nightmare fodder for those with overactive imaginations (think of that army coming to life and trying to throw you away). The scale of these displays is amazing--follow the link to Schult's site from the How Can I Recycle This? blog and check out the photos. When you see masses of trash people lined up on the Great Wall of China or in front of Egyptian pyramids, it's hard to not get the message that we waste too much in our society and to begin to understand that wastefulness has an effect not only on resources, but on people as well. (Photo featured here is an image shown on How Can I Recycle This? and attributed to dbking on Flickr)

Just last week, How Can I Recycle This? featured the artwork of Chris Jordan, in particular an exhibition called Running the Numbers. This in another great visual aid to convey the scale of our wastefulness (along with other non-environmental social issues, as not every work in this exhibition deals with trash). Jordan presents striking images along with statistics that shock the system. Cans Seurat, his recreation of a famous Seurat painting using aluminum cans, for example, lets the viewer know that it was composed of 106,000 cans--"the number used in the U.S. every thirty seconds." I had been aware of Jordan before, having come across his web site for a previous work called Intolerable Beauty a few years back (check it and his other exhibitions out at http://www.chrisjordan.com/). If you want to convey the scale of waste in the U.S. to someone, the photos in Intolerable Beauty will certainly help. If you check out Running the Numbers on Jordan's web site, you can also view other visual aids related to the use of plastic cups on airlines, plastic water bottles, cell phones, fuel (in the form of jet trails and SUVs), paper bags, paper cups, plastic bags, office paper, and batteries, among other items. (Photo at left is Cans Seurat as shown on How Can I Recycle This?)

If all of this hasn't made you sick yet, go to National Geographic's Human Footprint for additional depressing illustrations of our consumption. The Trash People are mentioned on that site too.

Affordable Housing and a Reuse Revolutionary: Dan Phillips

If you haven't heard of Dan Phillips and his Phoenix Commotion project, please take a few minutes to check out his web site and watch the videos there--the one from the Texas Country Reporter is really inspiring. Dan teaches and assists "the working poor" of Huntsville, TX to build their own simple homes out of reused materials which might otherwise hit the landfill, inspiring hope, independence, empowerment and respect for the environment. The homes created from the materials at hand are really remarkable--you won't find your cookie-cutter, mega-box subdivision houses here. These homes are unique, filled with the character of the owner-builders and the areas in which they live. They are both whimsical and practical. Check out the "Project Photos" page and you'll see what I mean. If you look at the "interior" pictures, you'll see a mosaic of--be still my heart--metal bottle caps, a material which has always been a source of personal fascination for me. All sorts of fascinating materials are used in these homes; picture frame corners, natural logs, relish dishes, wine corks, you name it--if someone is throwing it away, Dan Phillips can probably find a use for it in the construction of a new home.

Dan Phillips and the folks who take him up on the opportunity to build and own their own homes are truly inspirational. This is a model that I would love to see replicated across the country, for the benefit of our people, our communities and our environment.

Sow's Ear Challenge

While surfing the net for more local food information, I came across the web site of Sleepy Creek Vineyards. I'm not a wine lover, but I was hoping to find out if they sell grapes or related products. I couldn't determine this from the site, but I did find a pleasant surprise while checking out their Hayloft Art Gallery page. Apparently this local vineyard hosts a contest called the Sow's Ear Challenge, in which folks are asked to "make a silk purse from a sow's ear," using reclaimed materials to create something new. This year, the theme was e-waste, and I wish that there were pictures posted of entries, especially since I came across an entry on an area blog (Smile Politely) discussing the vineyard and mentioning a "George Clooney toaster" that was one of this year's entries. According to the web site, last year the challenge material was a wooden pallet (again, I wanna see--where are the pictures?) and next year, the material will be cardboard. The site says Dean Schwenk won this year for a lamp made from old circuit boards, so congratulations to him for his really reuseful idea. Hats off to Sleepy Creek for what strikes me as a great idea, but I hope that in the future they'll post some photos (at least of the winners) and provide a list of the materials focused on from year to year.

Überstix--Legos for MacGyver's Kids

Today I learned about an interesting, unique construction toy called Überstix. I initially read about this on the Eco Child's Play blog in a post by Jennifer Lance. Überstix are made to be compatible with other construction toys, such as Legos, Erector sets, etc., and according to the web site are "engineered to work with recycled materials, i.e....straws...paper cups, paper clips, water bottles, etc." This is supposed to be true of all their products, not just the Scavenger series mentioned in Lance's post--that series is meant to be used with reused materials to create specific working models, like the Dragster and the Landshark (I'd love to link directly to the page illustrating those items on the Überstix site, but it's set up in an annoying Flash format and I can't; check them out on Amazon instead). Very nifty idea to encourage kids to use the materials around them to create their own toys. I've never seen an actual set of these and have no personal experience with how well they work, but Lance reports that they have been a hit with her seven-year-old daughter. This sounds like a great idea for a school science fair or class.

The Transmutation of Dryer Lint

Yesterday's post on Chen Long-Bin's book sculptures reminded me of another really interesting art project I learned about a few years ago. As proof that art can spring from even the lowliest of materials, Cheryl Capezutti created the National Lint Project. In a bizarre yet truly inspirational act of re-creation, Ms. Capezutti used dryer lint, much of which was donated, to create eerily appealing sculptures of humanoids and angels. Explore Capezutti's website to learn more about the project. The site includes information on donating lint, but I have no idea if the artist is still accepting this material, since the site looks as if it has not been updated in a while. Be sure to read the Exhibitions section, which describes how the National Lint Project included not only the sculptures, but a collection of notes the artist received from participants regarding their donated lint as well. That sounds as if it would be an interesting look into the minds of some kindred spirits, hoping to find a new life for even the fuzz from their laundry.

Having Your Head in a Book

While reading an altered book arts listserv post today, I came across a link to the art of Chen Long- Bin. (Can I just add that "Bin" is a great name for someone as into reuse and recycling as this talented man? I immediately think of the blue bin of paper for recycling sitting behind my desk.) Long-Bin sculpts the most amazing heads out of stacks of old phone books, magazines and printouts. Talk about having your head in a book! Be sure to have a look at the article from the November 2006 issue of Talkies linked to from this page (the image included here is from that article). This was a particularly interesting find for me, since only yesterday I was gazing at a stack of phone books in my office, thinking that I really needed to start mining them for paper to use in my own reuse crafts. I'm no sculptor, however, so Mr. Long-Bin needn't worry about competition from me anytime soon. What an inspiration!

Furniture Reuse is Fashionable in My Book

Hey folks, sorry for the long time since my last entry; I blame the fact that I am outnumbered by toddlers at my house and that I've been preoccupied by transitions at work. Just to prove I'm still here, I thought I would share this article entitled "Antique furniture falling out of favor" from the 5/14/08 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle by Nancy Davis Kho. Apparently although green is the new black these days, fewer people are choosing to furnish their green homes with reused or antique furniture due to fashion trends. Reason number 5051 to ignore fashion trends. According to the article the one good thing to come of this phenomenon is that there are currently great deals available on antique furniture--so get out there and go antiquing!