Reasons to celebrate: friends, family and summer!

Ah summer days in Portland just fly by way too quickly. The TfP team recently took a short hiatus to enjoy the sunshine, go play outside and relax on patios with friends. Feeling refreshed and energized, the team is back together and ready to get back in action, this time with our recently tanned faces. We couldn't resist soaking up more sun time by planning a small fundraiser potluck with our closest friends and family. We truly have an amazing set of volunteers who are supported by some pretty awesome people and just wanted to say thank you. So THANK YOU all for your support! We sure do appreciate it. :) Check out some photos from the lovely afternoon.

Our fabulous creatives, Kendra and Caitlin converted our bins to tables for our products and room for plates and drinks.

Delicious food was tasted and drinks were poured (including Caitlyn's famous horchata, yum!), and cornhole was set up in the backyard.

What awesome friends we have.

And awesome family!

A beautiful summer day.

The Art of Recycling

As I explored the city of Seattle for the first time ever (and saw way too many duck buses), I noticed to my right a few young adults stringing plants from three trees along a median. Very nice. Oh wait, those little plants are in plastic jugs! Ah, the mere thought of upcycling plastic bottles excites me. So I quickly urged my friends to cross the street to get the inside scoop.

Three students from the Art Institute of Seattle were working on a project (this homework is too easy!) focusing on sustainability! All the plants were edible, consisting of lettuce, herb and veggie varieties. The students said the point was to exemplify how simple it is to recycle and garden all at the same time in an urban setting. And so simple it is!

The students rigged up a portable irrigation system by turning a big water container upside in a tree, where the water drips through rubber tubing along a rope.

Just a couple rows of herbs, lettuces and other edible plants.

Now I may be a bit biased but Portland has got to have more homemade, sustainable solutions throughout the neighborhoods. Please send in your sightings and we'll post about them!

A Street Fair of Fun

Thousands of people flocked to Mississippi Ave's Street Fair last Saturday to enjoy the strong sunshine, the everlasting line of arts & craft booths and of course, bin building with Trash for Peace! We first want to give an enormous thank you to mr.greenbeans, a small DIY shop with big ideas, for inviting us to come and set up in front of their shop. We had numbers of people stop by and couldn't have done it without mr.greenbeans!

We couldn't have asked for a better day and a better response to TfP. A steady flow of kids, followed by their parents, curiously entered the booth to see what they could get involved in. At last! A craft they could touch and play with. (Don't worry parents, we clean all of our plastic bottles).

The children loved picking out the right bottle or can, stringing them with twine and sliding the bottles to fit snugly on the bin. The kids would get so involved in the project it was finally the parents encouraging them to keep walking through the festival.

While showing students how to build the bins, I kept overhearing tidbits on recycling plastic bottles and drinking from reusable water bottles. The TfP team just can't forget sneaking in our educational component!

 Check out our Facebook for more photos and mr.greenbeans web site for more DIY ideas!

Bins, bottles and crafts, oh my!

Cloudy skies and the occasional drizzle didn't deter hundreds of kids and families from checking out Kids' Day at Lake Oswego's Festival of the Arts last Friday. The day included a whirlwind of  face-painting, games, music, bingo, crafts and more! Just enough entertainment to engage childrens' short attention span for hours. Kids, ranging in age from Preschool to Jr. High, ran around the park soaking up as much fun as they could possibly take in. And luckily for Trash for Peace, kids LOVED our activities! We had a steady stream of children eager to get their hands on our games! So much that it was difficult to stop and take photos but we managed snap a few.

Children stepped right up to get their hands messy and paint egg-carton flowers or toilet paper roll owls and creatures.

Older kids thought our recycling bins made out of recycled materials were so cool and excited to learn how to build one! And helped finish TWO bins in the first hour!

And can't forget our cornhole set for any kid to test out their tossing skills with homemade, bottle cap-filled bags.

Not only did kids like our activities, but the TfP team shared some great conversations with parents and community members discussing TfP's mission of spreading awareness of reducing our global waste. It truly was a heart-warming day for Trash for Peace.

A Camp Fire Collaboration

 Last Thursday, the TfP team had an awesome afternoon hanging out with middle-school students in the local after-school Camp Fire chapter. And I can't lie to you, it was all fun and games! Over two separate sessions, we implemented our Trash for Peace curriculum that incorporates fun icebreakers and discussions to illustrate the importance of reducing, reusing, and then recycling. The students then had a month to prepare a design for the painting and construction of two recycle bins out of "trash;" one large bin made out of plastic bottles and a mini-bin made with bottle caps!

The students making holes in the bottle caps for the mini-bin.

Excitement filled the goggle-protected eyes of students as they used the power tools.

But we found out the best part during our 2nd session; the students had conducted surveys and gathered more information to create a display in the hallway of their school to show the importance of taking care of the environment in regards to waste. We were absolutely thrilled!

Be sure to check out our facebook for more photos of painting and assembling the bin and of course, the finished bin! Trash for Peace couldn't have had such a successful event without the partnership of NGO Long Way Home and Camp Fire Columbia, so a grand thank you to them! We're excited to work with these organizations in the future and more schools.

Forever Young

You're never too old to play with paint (and recycled materials)! And that is exactly what we learned last Wednesday evening from our guests at the Recycled Crafts night for Lake Oswego's Sustainability Action Month. Our creativity soared while we rolled up our sleeves, cut cardboard, envisioned, painted, glued and sipped on soda (from aluminum cans, of course!) as the projects dried. These ladies taught the TfP team a thing or two as we chatted about the paint colors, where to glue a jewel and how great these crafts would also be for kids. Take a look at our craft fun!

Caught in a moment of concentration, these ladies are creating their vision.

Choosing a nice, bright color scheme of teal, pink and green flowers.

She created a 3-D sunflower bookmark! Complete with coffee bean seeds.

Learn more about Lake Oswego's Sustainability Action Month events here.

Why is bottled water bad?

We found this awesome infographic breaking down the negatives of bottled water. And these are just the basic numbers. It is astonishing (and appalling!) to find out how much we, as Americans, spend on bottled water when large amounts of oil use and waste created far outweigh the benefits of a bottle of water. Spread the word and remember your reusable water bottle! Find a larger version of the infograhic at http://www.onlineeducation.net/bottled_water.