Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

December 15, 2013

Happy Holidays from Trash for Peace! 

Our final event of the year was on December 10^th, and while we were putting together bin kits and making holiday cards out of all repurposed materials with the fabulous members from NAIFA (see photos below), it reminded us that this holiday season you could indulge without feeling any guilt of being wasteful!  We encourage you to reduce, reuse, and rethink waste every day, and it can be just as easy during the Holidays.

You can find repurposed wrapping paper and many other craft ideas at SCRAP (www.scrappdx.org), or decorate old newspaper or grocery bags to wrap gifts!

Consider giving the gift of an experience, such as going to the movies, or a massage, or a donation to your favorite nonprofit (nudge nudge, wink wink).

Even holiday trees are becoming more sustainable.  Check out the options provided by the organization “Living Christmas Trees” (livingchristmastrees.org), and don't forget to recycle your tree after the holidays!

 At the moment, I am sitting in our living room, our kitty napping to my left and our roommate’s dog napping to my right.  The lights from our “Holiday” tree are encasing the room in a gentle glow, and it is wafting the smell of blue pine and winter all around the house. 

I am reminded of how warm and cozy this time of year is, and how grateful I am to be able to bask in it.  Part of this contentment, is the feeling of accomplishment knowing all that Trash for Peace has been able to do this year, and at the same time, the excitement and challenge of knowing how much more we want and hope to do in the future.  None of it would be possible without the support of our team, and all of you. 

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, and a very happy New Year.

Please stay tuned in 2014 for more exciting updates and projects from your favorite local "trashy" team at Trash for Peace. 

Warm wishes,

The Trash for Peace team

December, 2013

My goodness, it has been awhile!  The Trash for Peace team has been so ridiculously busy we have been severely neglecting our blog!

To make up for lost time, here is a quick recap of what we have been up to:

Throughout the second half of 2013, Trash for Peace built over 38 recycle bins with schools, businesses, and communities.  We worked with schools all over Portland and the larger Metro area: Forest Heights Elementary, Concord Elementary, Access Academy, Bethany Elementary, Portland State University, and more.   We also worked with Whole Foods, SCRAP, and the city of Hillsboro, and other businesses building bins, garden beds, and even a greenhouse that used over 1,000 plastic bottles!

We started a youth group program with a boys group at Dekum Court, one of Home Forward’s housing sites.   We taught leadership and team building through the hands-on techniques of turning trash into functional art.  The boys built recycle bins, a bench, and much more in a short three months this summer.

This fall we hosted our first every Trashy Trivia event, which was a huge success!  We hope to have more, perhaps every quarter.

We also piloted our new Repurposed Garden program this summer, and hope to build more garden beds and maybe even greenhouses, all out of “trash” with schools in the future.

We have more recycle-bin builds coming up in 2014, more youth programming with the boys group at Dekum, more Trashy Trivia events, and the list just keeps growing!

Speaking of growing, that is just what we have been doing, little by little, and could not do it without all of your support.  Thank you all for being a part of this movement.  We love your feedback, please send us your thoughts, ideas, suggestions!  

And please stay tuned for information on upcoming events, and more blog posts!

Love, the Trash for Peace team