Trash photographer Chris Jordan whose work documenting American mass consumption we’ve posted on before, has a troubling new series called “Midway,” in which he shows what happens when albatross chicks eat too much plastic.
Thanks to all the tipsters who sent me this link!
Since the Egyptian government killed all their pigs, the Zabaleen trash picking community of Cairo have had no use for the organic waste they used to collect as food slops, thus creating a trash crisis for the city at large. NPR reports on a couple of positive developments. One, the Zabaleen neighborhoods now smell better (though other parts of Cairo now stink more) and an organization called Solar Cities has been building bio-gas and solar fueled heaters for the Zabaleen providing hot water to a community that has never had it before and creating a use for some of the organic waste plaguing Cairo.
Finished system via http://solarcities.blogspot.com/
Listen to the Weekend Edition clip and check out production assistant Kimberly Adams‘ post on NPR’s blog Soapbox describing her recent trip to Egypt and Solar Cities’ work there.
It’s been a full year since my friend, Virginia (a.k.a. Jenny) began Italicious, a blog that chronicles the Italian (and sometimes Southern American) cooking that nourishes the charmed life she and her Neopolitan husband seem to lead. My FAVORITE thing about her blog is that she not only shares ideas for how to mix mouth watering combinations of amazing ingredients—sausage, fennel, home made pastas, dark leafy greens, saffron, cheese, etc.—but she’ll often include next-day recipes for how to recycle the leftovers, old school Italian style. And you know how we love to recycle! Recently, she added an entire “Reused, Recycled” page to the site to cull these recipes in one place. Check. It. Out.
Crochette di Riso via Italicious
Pictured above are tasty rice balls made from leftover risotto. You may remember the zero waste pasta pie featured here before. SUCH amazing stuff. Happy birthday, Italicious!
Now through November 7th, the Architectural League of New York brings us an incredible-sounding exhibit at The Urban Center. It’s called Toward the Sentient City and focuses on the use of mobile, sensor and other new technologies in city planning and architecture. A major feature of the exhibition is the Trash Track project from MIT’s SENSEable City Lab, which we’ve lauded here before. Check out the project Web site for images of some of the trash they’ve tracked through NYC and Seattle.
NYC trash
I hope to check out this exhibit before it closes a, because I can’t get enough of trash track and b, because I’m curious about all the other urban computing that’s going on out there. The mobile world truly seems to be exploding and I am constantly impressed by new and innovative applications toward the common good.
ReCORK America is a recycling project of Amorim, a Portugese company and the world’s largest cork supplier. According to a spokesman for the company, the program has collected over four million corks to date…and counting. This week, they partnered with SOLE, a footwear company that will use the corks as a base for their shoes.
Recycled corks
I am usually very skeptical of green business press releases, but I really like this idea. Cork is such a useful material. It’s such a shame that so much ends up in the trash. Californians can donate wine corks to the project at these locations.
Tested in Omaha and coming soon to a city near you, EcoATM is a vending machine that takes gadgets and dispenses coupons, vouchers and cash. The working prototype takes only old cell phones, but the company plans to add mp3 players, digital cameras and more to the list of recyclables.
EcoATM
A colleague placed a collection box for used glasses in the kitchen at my office. Her son is collecting them for New Eyes for the Needy, an organization that recycles eye glasses in the U.S. and overseas.
Let me know if you have an old pair to spare. Or start a drive yourself.
This week in trash news:
The nytimes.com blog Green Inc. reports that:
Enerkem, a green energy company based in Quebec, has developed an alternative approach to mining the carbon out of non-recyclable plastics, construction waste and other materials found in the municipal waste stream.
The company says it has pioneered a gasification technology that processes waste into a synthetic gas that can be converted into liquid fuels and biochemicals, and it has entered a 25-year deal with the City of Edmonton to purchase the trash left over after glass, metals, paper and recyclable plastics have been removed.
This Thursday, October 8th, Seattle-based trashies should check out Kuros Zahedi‘s work @
OFFICE NOMADS
Thursday, October 8
6-10pm
1617 Boylston Ave., Second Floor
There will be drinks, food, and great people. This date syncs up with the Blitz! Capitol Hill Art Walk – so if you’re planning on attending the art walk, make Office Nomads a stop for sure!
Zahedi's "The Garden of Hope"
A statement from the artist on his work with trash:
Behesht is the Farsi word for Paradise. It refers to a place that is full of happiness, peace, and beauty. In common speech, it also refers to where the soul goes after dying. Humanity is at a fork in the road. Looking at the injustice, war, and escalating ecological calamity in our world, it is easy to become disillusioned and to conclude that we are headed for the latter.
I am interested in exploring the possibility of beauty within everything. The works in this series offer a vision of hope for the future of humanity. Directions can change. We can compost the rotting fruits and plant new seeds. We can heal what we have hurt. We can use the very detritus of our blundering to rebuild a society which provides the conditions in which the creative nature of humanity can thrive in safety, peace and beauty.
These works are created using trash collected from streets and waste generated at my home. I use these materials because of the powerful symbolism of transforming the trash into something beautiful. I use natural glues, beeswax and a bit of paint to finish the work. The imagery is inspired by the Persian miniatures and carpets I grew up with, 20th century Austrian painting and the textures and processes of nature. I want to capture the feeling and passion of rebirth from the ashes and the joy and exhilaration of creating beauty out of ugliness. Behesht is here; we must only clear away the garbage.
via Neatorama
Plastic Bag poster
Filmmaker Ramin Bahrani‘s short film Plastic Bag, which debuted at the Venice Film Festival, is now playing at the New York Film Festival and will soon be available online. It’s 18 minutes long and features narration by Werner Herzog.
From Flavorwire:
Here lies the increasingly apparent message (Herzog: “I wish you had created me so I could die”) of an ecological PSA that’s still poetic and quite potent, one bolstered by Sigur Rós keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson’s lush score. Happily, you’ll be able to watch it online in the near-future since it’s one of the 11 films that make up Futurestates, a new series commissioned by The Independent Television Service (ITVS).
This project adds to my ever-growing collection of evidence that Iranian-Americans love trash.
everydaytrash 