Kampala, Uganda
Sorry for the unannounced hiatus. I’m in Uganda for work. Pushing my way through the narrow aisles of Owino market in Kampala the other day, I turned a corner ot face this: a plastic bag bearing President Obama’s face with “Best of Luck” written accross the top. Profoundly depressing on a number of levels.
More images of Ugandan trash on Facebook.
A quick how-to on making bioplastic in your kitchen via MAKE. Laser cutter not included.
unconsumption finds the neatest stuff. Anyone who follows this blog should also follow that one. Case in point, this recycled plastic chandelier by artist Katharine Harvey.
Katharine Harvey's recycled plastic chandelier
Reminds me of this chandelier, also brought to our attention by unconsumption.
City Harvest‘s new PSA highlights food waste in New York.
Office paper to toilet paper. Amazing. Thanks for the tip, Brendan!
via Uber Gizmo and BornRich.org
This article, which I came across via my friend Oriana‘s Facebook page, might just restore my faith in the Peace Corps. Why? Because Peace Corps volunteer Laura Kutner used her time in Guatemala to lead a local effort in collecting plastic bottles and used them to build a school.
Photo by Laura Kutner via planetgreen.discovery.com
Thanks, Oriana, you always have the best trash tips!
Watching Majora Carter‘s TEDTalk on the way to work today reminded me why I’m such a big fan of this local environmental revolutionary. She articulates better than anyone what it’s like to live in the “away” other people never picture when they throw things away, the lasting legacy of Robert Moses and the impact his reign over New York City planning and expansion had on her neighborhood and how she has led a community effort to fight back and “green the ghetto.”
Collecting trash is a dangerous job. You don’t have to travel to developing countries for examples of why this is true. A Mack truck ran into and killed a sanitation worker this week as he was standing behind his truck in Queens, New York. If you read the comments in this City Room post, you’ll see locals complain that even though this street may have been closed to giant truck traffic, Mack trucks cut through it for convenience. I don’t know yet if that’s true—if the truck that killed this sanitation worker had made an illegal turn or a legal one—either way Frank Justich‘s death was tragic.
Attn: New Yorkers
UnionDocs is showing Garbage Warrior—the documentary about radical sustainable architect, Michael Reynolds—on Friday, January 29th, @ 7:30 pm. Director Oliver Hodge will be on hand for a Q&A. And at least 50% of the everydaytrash.com team plans to attend.
Since we first blogged about this film in 2007 and 2008, it has traveled the festival circuit racking up awards. Check it out if you’re in the area and keep an eye out if you’re elsewhere.
Thanks for the tip, Oriana!
Dear corporate bookstore owners: you do not trade in trash.
Doomed bookstore
From the HuffPo:
Last month, corporate parent Borders announced they will soon be closing 200 Waldenbooks book stores in communities nationwide. Current Waldenbooks employees have come forward to alert the public that the company plans to dispose of many unsold books in the cheapest, easiest, least responsible way possible – by trashing them.
Read more here. First H&M, now this. Clearly we aren’t doing a good enough job communicating the simple reality that throwing things away is never the cheaper solution. Not in the long run. Ideas on how to better message through the thick skulls of corporate America?
Thanks for the tip, Robin.
“15 Trashspotting blogs” = the Best. Roundup. Ever.
And I’m not just saying that because we made the cut. This listing of “trashspotting” sites on the Construction Management Degree blog includes some of our favorite trashies—Last Night’s Garbage, The Visible Trash Society, 365 Days of Trash—as well as a most intriguing group of newcomers. I can’t wait to check out the Budapest Trashspotting Club.
Stay tuned for a bloated blogroll and reflections on the meaning of trashspotting.
Decorative Dumpster Day came a little early to NYC when “polite graffiti” artist Finley swung by to wallpaper some trash receptacles.
Courtesy photos
Trashtastic. Thanks for the tip, Erica.
Little Shiva over at The Visible Trash Society features Claudia Borgna today, an artist whose primary medium is your every day plastic bag. I urge you to take some time to peruse Borgna’s website because her manipulation of these items is extraordinary.Be sure to check out images of her nature installations—billowing bags tied to resemble flowers, pods and other-worldly orbs—and dreamy performance pieces like the one pictured here.
Claudia Borgna
In her statement, the artist describes:
I find plastic bags interesting because of their remarkable contradictory qualities. Plastic bags are in fact both worthless and useful, disposable and recyclable, flimsy and strong, ephemeral and eternal, but above all they are universal.
Thanks, Little Shiva, for this special find.
Ruby Re-Usable has a great post up today on decorated dumpsters and a reminder that later this year we will be celebrating Decorative Dumpster Day for the second consecutive year. Woot.
Chandelier made from eyeglasses
From Very Very Fun (via uncomsumption and Dudecraft):
Salvage pioneer Stuart Haygarth has created an eye-catching eyeglass masterpiece, turning discarded glasses into a gorgeously green glowing chandelier. Spectacle is an optical chandelier assembled from 1020 pairs of discarded prescription glasses, with a smaller size constructed from 620 pairs. The refracted light from the lenses makes fluid shadows that play across walls creating an aqueous lighting effect that shimmers as much as it delights.
everydaytrash 