365 Days Of Trash: 7/13/08

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Makers Are Simply The Coolest Thing Going!

For those of you who aren't familiar with Make Magazine or the Maker Movement you're missing out on something cool. The Maker movement is all about re-purposing, but to the extreme. According to the Maker Bill of Rights if you can't hack something, that is crack it open and turn it into something better, than you don't truly own it. I love that.

Now this may seem like an odd topic for me to post on, after all, we're not all mad tinkerers, or many of us, like myself (just ask my wife) are, but are not all that successful at it. But in reality, these guys are doing exactly what I'm all for. Check out this piece on NPR about a guy named Mr. Jalopy and you'll see that he's all about taking otherwise useless items, broken bikes, and old broken phonograph system, and turning it into something useful. In the process, he not only diverts things from the waste stream, but also creates a valued commodity, and potentially eliminates the need for a similar new product. How awesome! He's got a really great riff on our throw away culture too. Check it out.

Dave

Day 197 - Wednesday 7/16/08

Today's Haul:

1 plastic tofu dog wrapper - recycle
3 sugar packets - worms
2 paper studio passes - worms
2 lollipop sticks w/wrappers - garbage
1 frozen juice container ends (metal) - recycle
1 frozen juice container middle (plasticaoted cardboard)- garbage

Day 196 - Tuesday 7/15/08

Today's Haul:

1 plastic burrito wrapper bag - recycle
2 paper door flyers - worms
1 broken plastic candy bag - recycle
2 lollipop sticks and wrappers - garbage

Day 195 - Monday 7/14/08

Today's Haul:

1 plastic tofu tub PP5 - recycle
1 tea bag - worms
1 tea bag packet - worms
2 paper studio passes - worms
1 paper call sheet - worms
10 pages studio sexual harrasment paperwork - worms (female and male)
1 staple from sexual harrasment paperwork - garbage
1 local coupon flyer - recycle
1 plastic bag from local coupon flyer - repurpose
1 cardboard chocolate pudding box - recycle
1 chocolate pudding mix pack - garbage
1 ring from top of milk jug - recycle
1 plastic soy toilet scrub bottle- recycle
1 plastic whipped topping container PP5 - recycle **
1 plastic ring from butter spread container - recycle
1 emergen-c packet - garbage

**the whipped topping container was actually emptied months ago but has been the worm food receptacle we keep by the sink. After opening and closing it so many times it finally cracked and down to the basement it goes.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Our Synthetic Sea

An amazing movie from 2002 that shows just what's going on with the plastic in the ocean.

Also check out my friends Marcus and Joel who are sailing a raft made of 15,000 plastic bottles and a Cesna plane fuselage across the pacific to bring awareness to the problem right now!

Dave

Monday, July 14, 2008

Non-Toxic Cleaning Supplies

There is a really great post on the Tree Hugging Family blog about how to make non-toxic cleaning supplies for your house. It has never made sense to me, especially with kids, that we cover our living surfaces with toxic chemicals in order to clean up relatively benign dirt. Of course you can buy all sorts of eco-safe products these days, but many of them will cost you more and you'll be wasting a lot of packaging in the process.

If you are looking for some more information and some different ideas, here's a great resource from LADWP of all places that has all sorts of recipes for non-toxic cleaners.

Dave