66 bottles of beer on the roof

My friend Joe of Beer at Joe’s tipped me off to this story relevant to both of our blogs: a solar water heater made out of old beer bottles.  Love it!

Plastic Shoes

This provocative image came to me via the comments. It’s from a blog in Dutch. Perhaps they feel a kinship over comfy shoes made of hard materials?

Corporate partnerships

Check out this CNN bit on ecochic bags. Corporations are teaming up with designers to make use of leftover and misprinted packaging donated in exchange for the free branding. Image via CNN. Thanks for the tip, Al!

Here’s a link to a video featuring Ecoist, one of the first companies linked to on the everydaytrash.com sidebar.  It’s nice to see the rest of the world catching on.

Posting on Composting

Ever find yourself deciding between a composting bin and composting tumbler?  Or what kind of container one needs to house a worm condo?  The good people of Composters.com have a blog that may help to answer some of those questions.  Here’s the link.

Upcycling for art

Artist S.A. Schimmel Gold makes art from objects that would otherwise go to waste.

Unconventional Recycling

How rad is this “walking bike”? Check it and six other amazing recycled things here at Environmental Grafitti. Who knew Stamford had a Children’s Garbage Museum??? Summer field trip here I come.

Do some countries export their trash to other countries?

Duh. Plenty has the fuller answer. Also, this nice picture.

Italian Trash Crisis Goes to EU Court

In my humble opinion, any article that includes the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words” should include a picture. This one by the Cristian Science Monitor does not (oddly, they went for audio instead), but we’ll let them slide just this once since they found the only interesting angle on today’s Naples trash crisis update. It appears Italy will have to defend itself at the European Court of Justice for bad trash management…

“But what the EU is tackling through the courts, artists here have been taking on with their paintbrushes and movie cameras. From trash-themed satires of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” to music played with abandoned mattresses, these a artists are finding creative and ironic ways to express the malaise of living amid the rotting piles of waste. After years of largely unfulfilled promises from politicians, the grass-roots movement is also trying to use artwork to put forward practical solutions, such as increasing the region’s dismal recycling rates.”

Photo via Rain News

Trash/Street Art

If you see creative displays of trash on the sidewalk, snap a photo and send it to Wooster Collective, those admirable archivists of all things street art.

Boston restaurants don’t recycle

Check out this and the two linked and related articles on Boston eateries and how they like to throw away bottles.

Photo by Jess Gately for the Boston Herald

Garbage Island

Check out this “Toxic Series” on VBS.TV about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, that floating dump in the ocean. 

Sanitation Day

Yesterday was a “sanitation day” in Benin City, Nigeria.  Everyone but medical doctors must stay home between 7-10am or risk major fines.  The “holiday” is statewide and observed on different days in other states.  People are supposed to clean up their homes and compounds, though many choose to simply sleep in. 

Lagos, Nigeria

 

Trash Hiatus

I’ll be bouncing around Nigeria over the next couple of weeks and while I know the Internet access in the cities I’ll be visiting is probably good, I’ll be in constant transit and may not be able to post often.  Please investigate the sidebar links while I’m gone.  I think you’ll find good stuff over there!

First World Congress of Waste Pickers

Just got a tip from Maxwell about an international gathering of trash pickers hosted by the Bogotá Association of Recyclers (ARB).

“The 18,000-member ARB hosted hundreds of waste pickers from over 40 countries for a four-day conference in early March. Funded by international non-profits, the First World Congress of Waste Pickers was held “to exchange experiences and to create national and international alliances that will protect us from being stepped on by local governments,” said Ospina. The conference demonstrated that although trash recyclers around the world face socio-economic marginalization and harassment from local authorities, recyclers are also becoming increasingly organized and are winning important victories.”

(Photo by Marty Chen for ARB)