Recycled Art

While at the Vancouver Farmer’s Market this last Saturday they were also having the Recycled Arts Festival in the adjoining Esther Short Park. This of course meant we all had to go check that out too.

The idea of reusing trash and turning it into treasure is by no means a new concept, but it seems that people get cleverer at how they transform those found objects into works of art: Old wine bottles melted to form spoon rests; marbles turned into rings and pendants; chip bags and candy wrappers turned into clutches, handbags and purses. My partner, his mother, sister and I all enjoyed walking from booth to booth and checking out either the merchandise being sold or the idea booths for how-to projects you can do yourself.

Being of crafty peasant stock myself, there were a good number of items showcased I could easily replicate with stuff I currently have on hand. Then again, I could easily improve on some of them too, or at the very least personalize those items to better suit my particular wants and needs. The first thing that comes to mind is repurposing some of my old screen tees I no longer wear because they are unraveling in certain areas or don’t fit well into market bags. And anyone who knows me knows I have a lot of screen tees so that would be a lot of market bags!

But the Recycled Arts Festival also got me thinking about something else. We as a society, at least here in the United States, seem to live disposable lives. Practically everything we use or buy has an expiration date whether it says so or not because instead of manufacturers making products built to last a lifetime, they make products built to last until the newer model comes out so that you’ll have to replace it. I’m sure this last sixty or so years we’ve been consuming disposable products will simply disappear from the history books because there won’t be any lasting impression of how we lived except for the giant heaps of garbage created from this disposable society, most of which will still be there for many, many generations to come.

Perhaps the days of manufacturing goods back to quality status will return when the landfills can no longer contain our bounty we bestow upon them. Perhaps more of our everyday disposable items will become biodegradable or compostable. Then again, perhaps the day we simply outgrow this planet and kill ourselves off due to overpopulation, overconsumption and overall abuse of our resources will happen before we come to our senses. Hopefully we come to our senses before it is too late. Until then, I’m going to rummage through the garage for some trash I can turn into treasure.

Recycling

I remember growing up we didn’t do much in the way of recycling. Back then pretty much everything went into the trash. Times have changed, haven’t they?

Nowadays recycling is everywhere, and not just that but waste reduction and repurposing is huge too. Well, except for the toy and small electronics industries, which have taken to using nearly impossible to open plastic packaging that cannot be recycled and/or massive amounts of wires and screws to make sure the product arrives in this country shelf ready. Quite ironic how wasteful some companies have become in regards to how they package their products, especially in an age when we know better, and all in the name of vanity. After all, it has to look pretty on those ugly oyster colored shelves so you, the consumer, will buy it. (Sidenote: Did you know the reason that most retail shelving is that oyster color is to make the product look better?)

So, to get back to recycling, I remember separating cans and newspaper into their respective bags when I got older. My mother was big on recycling even before it was cool to be, and she would take the full bags to wherever they would be accepted, and sometimes would do some guerilla dumping at a church parking lot’s big blue recycling dumpster. Before long, curbside recycling would be implemented, eliminating the need to be all stealthy to help save the environment. And with curbside, came a lot of things that were designated recyclable, but were not accepted in the bins, such as margarine tubs, yogurt cups and colored containers, a majority of it plastic, which is by far the worst offender in the packaging world.

Paper will break down rather quickly, glass and metal will eventually wear away, but plastic is almost a forever deal. Life on this planet could cease and in a million years some alien species may stumble upon it and all they will see that a some form of “intelligent” life existed would be our plastic garbage. Of course, some could argue the ingenuity of having such a lasting impact is a marvelous thing, why would we, in this age of a little enlightenment where we realize our once unlimited resources are now limited, continue to create “better” plastics that will outlast their predecessors? I’m not saying get rid of plastics entirely, as there are plenty of examples where plastics have made us safer, just limit the amount of wasteful packaging made from it. Maybe Best Foods can even revert my mayonnaise back to a glass jar? Maybe stop bottling water and soda in plastic containers? Okay, that may be getting too aggressive. Baby steps, I know, baby steps.

We as a society should start making better choices, and start demanding better alternatives. Manufacturers want us to buy their products, and if we want those products in a package that is better for the environment, they will change it. After all, if we the consumer, don’t buy their product because of how it is packaged, they don’t make money, and they’re in the business of making money.

Of course, today our three bin recycling system where we live (paper, plastic, glass/metal) has gone to a giant can where everything but glass goes in. And with this, an increased variety of plastics can now be recycled in it. Glass is still put in the same little bin it was in before and put out beside the big blue monster, which mostly gets filled with paper, paperboard and cardboard. But I think the fact that the only thing we have to remember to separate in our recycling bins is glass has made it a lot easier. I know this has halved the amount of garbage we have weekly, along with composting food scraps. Overall I think it is a step in the right direction.

I’m not saying that I don’t buy items in plastic containers, I’m just saying that I look for alternatives. I mean afterall, if we didn’t use so many plastic water bottles, we wouldn’t have such cheap carpeting or those nifty reusable grocery bags, would we?