At 3pm, June 1st, a raft made of a salvaged plane and 15,000 plastic bottles will set sail from the Long Beach Aquarium, pointed toward Hawaii. Tipster Anna Cummins invites anyone in the area to see her financee and his partner head off on an exciting expedition to raise awareness about ocean debris. Track the journey on the boat’s blog.
Via everdaytrash comments and Shifting Baselines.
Veolia Environmental Services has figured out an interesting model for funding the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. They collect old bras from local ladies and sell them in West Africa. When I first started seeing bra recycling headlines from Ireland and England this week, I assumed people were collecting the underwire. This, however, is a good example of how recycling pays!
Via letsrecycle.com
Remember the adorable “air bear” created by art student Joshua Allen Harris? Check out his giraffe.
And, perhaps a predecessor, in this one a German artist uses simple plastic bags in a cruder street installation.
Oh no, the trash crisis in Naples isn’t over.
The Combustibles are having a benefit party/auction/extravaganza in midtown. A mere $15 at the door gets you beer and snacks, not a bad deal and for a trashy cause.
I discovered Tim Noble and Sue Webster’s amazing trash sculptures online a while back, while traveling somewhere with slow internet and forgot to post about them when I got home. Finally, here they are, old news to some but worth a first, second and third look if you ask me. This blog has a nice collection of photos.
My friend Joe of Beer at Joe’s tipped me off to this story relevant to both of our blogs: a solar water heater made out of old beer bottles. Love it!
This provocative image came to me via the comments. It’s from a blog in Dutch. Perhaps they feel a kinship over comfy shoes made of hard materials?
Check out this CNN bit on ecochic bags. Corporations are teaming up with designers to make use of leftover and misprinted packaging donated in exchange for the free branding. Image via CNN. Thanks for the tip, Al!
Here’s a link to a video featuring Ecoist, one of the first companies linked to on the everydaytrash.com sidebar. It’s nice to see the rest of the world catching on.
Ever find yourself deciding between a composting bin and composting tumbler? Or what kind of container one needs to house a worm condo? The good people of Composters.com have a blog that may help to answer some of those questions. Here’s the link.
Artist S.A. Schimmel Gold makes art from objects that would otherwise go to waste.
How rad is this “walking bike”? Check it and six other amazing recycled things here at Environmental Grafitti. Who knew Stamford had a Children’s Garbage Museum??? Summer field trip here I come.
Duh. Plenty has the fuller answer. Also, this nice picture.
In my humble opinion, any article that includes the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words” should include a picture. This one by the Cristian Science Monitor does not (oddly, they went for audio instead), but we’ll let them slide just this once since they found the only interesting angle on today’s Naples trash crisis update. It appears Italy will have to defend itself at the European Court of Justice for bad trash management…
“But what the EU is tackling through the courts, artists here have been taking on with their paintbrushes and movie cameras. From trash-themed satires of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” to music played with abandoned mattresses, these a artists are finding creative and ironic ways to express the malaise of living amid the rotting piles of waste. After years of largely unfulfilled promises from politicians, the grass-roots movement is also trying to use artwork to put forward practical solutions, such as increasing the region’s dismal recycling rates.”
Photo via Rain News
If you see creative displays of trash on the sidewalk, snap a photo and send it to Wooster Collective, those admirable archivists of all things street art.
