Recreart: The Art of Reusing

Trash for Peace is getting the whole reusing thing down to a science. And of course, we've had much help along the way! The Monday before Thanksgiving, a group of Portland State University students came together to celebrate reusing through art. It was collaboration between TfP, PSU's Sustainability Leadership Center (SLC) and the Public Administration Student Association of PSU (PASA).

The students combined their painting, lacquering, assembling, drilling and many other skills to build two ottoman tables, one bin and a cork board for the Ondine Residency Halls. In just three hours, nonetheless! As well as our partners, we would also like to thank Jason Evjen for his superb photography skills so we could document the event!

Recycled Leaves

As much as we try to hold on to autumn's changing colors, winter is charging in with its blustery cold (and rain, in the case of the Pacific Northwest). Trees have shed their unused leaves where they lie in our yards, becoming mushy piles of debris. Portlanders tend to allow their leaves to decompose where they have fallen, but many other people in different parts of the country tend to rake these leaves into plastic bags to leave at the curb. Since plastic is our game, we at Trash for Peace just wanted to share suggestions on how to clean your yard, the eco-friendly way.

Portland is an exception in that the city provides composting bins to their residents. Considering this may be the only city in the nation that does this, I did some research to find out how other cities tackle this problem. There are city websites out there specifically asking residents to not put leaves in plastic bags and tells them why. Click here and here for a couple examples.

But what about everybody else? Here are a couple ideas to spread:

1. Leave your leaves: You can either leave them where they fall or rake them and put them into your own compost. Letting your leaves compost is Mother Nature's way of recycling the valuable nutrients back into the earth. Why compost?
- It's free! No need to purchase mulch for your garden or landscaping.
- It adds organic nutrients to the soil, decreasing the need for fertilizers.
- It reduces soil erosion and water run-off by allowing plants to gain a stronger hold to the soil.
- It restricts growing weeds from popping up.

2. Invest in biodegradable bags: You can find paper or biodegradable bags at almost every hardware store. Once the city picks up your yard waste, they run the leaf-full bags through a shredder turning everything into a mulch, that is also eventually used as compost material.

Let Mother Nature do your recycling! (At least in the case of fallen leaves).

Switch to Sustainable Living

Just four days away, Nov. 15 marks a holiday near and dear to our mission, National America Recycles Day. Although we much prefer to reduce or reuse our waste, our third goal of recycling is much better than nothing! It is said that single-use plastics, such as plastic water bottles and plastic bags that people take home from the grocery, are hardly ever recycled. In fact, only 10% of these items are recycled. 10%! Imagine the amount that is going straight to our landfills, filling them up quite quickly and taking centuries to break down. Read more about this in an article from The Green Economy Post, Facing the Dirty Truth About Recyclable Plastics.

Portland is one of the very few places in America that has taken the initiative to ban plastic bags at all grocery stores. (Yay Portland!) But what about those rolls of tear-off plastic bags near all produce sections. They are stamped with a green recycle sign but how many actually get recycled? Unfortunately, I couldn't find this answer but it mostly likely is similar to the 10% number above. Shocking, isn't it! And we are all guilty of separating our fresh veggies in these bags when we don't want them rolling around it the cart.

In the spirit of America Recycles Day, I went out searching for an alternative sustainable option. And it was easy to find.

Fred Meyer carries reusable mesh bags perfect for your veggies. I picked up a pack for $1.99 for three bags. Two bucks! And you are set. Just throw them in your reusable cloth tote that you normally take to the grocery store and you'll be sure to never forget them.

This Thursday, celebrate America Recycles Day with Trash for Peace by making eco-friendly choices. Then share it with us! We would love to feature you and share any and all switches to sustainable living. Check out more ideas at AmericaRecyclesDay.org.

Say Cheese!

Okay, okay so we didn't necessarily tell our bins to smile during their photoshoot, but we sure did have fun! The TfP team recently realized that we needed some good, clean photos of our bins for informational and promotional reasons. As much as we love all our photos of children building and recycle fans adoring our homemade bins, we just thought we could use a couple solo bin photos. So a photoshoot was planned!

We found a perfect place near Laura's home consisting of a concrete wall, low-hanging branches and fall leaves strewn about. We used the partly cloudy skies to illuminate the bins and highlight their best features. The photos turned out great and TfP couldn't be happier for our bin family.

Check out our newest bin! It is comprised of four cabinet doors with bottle shapes cut off, thanks to our fabulous carpenter, John. We will be getting this one up on our website soon.

You can take a look at all of our designs on our website here!