Itching to liberate your closet from worn-out cargo pants, but can't bear to bid them adieu? Buck up, little repurposing DIYer, there's a bright future for them...
You may see a cast aside shopping cart and think "oh....big deal", but one artist-designer demonstrates that there can be infinite possibilities for the consumer items that we think we no longer have a purpose for. Creative eco-inspiration at its finest....
Art rocks, especially when it's made entirely of castoffs rescued from our consumer waste stream. It is truly amazing how -- in the right hands -- garbage can become transformed into such artistic greatness. Take a peek and get inspired to begin your own personal waste-to-eco-art projects.
Just because they're really realllllly small when we crumple them up doesn't mean that we shouldn't be recycling them -- here are a few ways to repurpose aluminum candy wrappers that you've probably never thought of before!
An artist can easily be considered the consumer culture "cast aside picker-upper" of our time. Case in point. Old books that have been given the cold shoulder are now being viewed as desirable works of art meant to be admired and appreciated thanks to the efforts of Robert The -- http://www.greenwala.com/community/blogs/all/4007-Recycled-Books-Morph-Into-Edgy-Artistic-Alter-EgosAn artist can easily be considered the consumer culture "cast aside... more
**Please feel free to share any info you may have regarding other companies that do the same!**I must have enough replacement bulbs in my arsenal by now to illuminate the North... more
Good office space can be hard to come by, and even then it doesn’t come cheap. Orange County printing company MVP found a creative, affordable and convenient alternative – they turned part of an industrial warehouse into office space. Of course, being a warehouse, it wasn’t equipped with fancy things like private offices, climate control, and break rooms. MVP’s solution? They grouped ten 20-foot shipping containers inside the warehouse to serve as offices.
The New York Times reports that about 10 percent of electricity generated in the United States comes from fuel from dismantled nuclear bombs, mostly Russian. 'It's a great, easy source' of fuel, said Marina V. Alekseyenkova, an analyst at Renaissance Bank and an expert in the Russian nuclear industry that has profited from the arrangement since the end of the cold war. But if more diluted weapons-grade uranium isn't secured soon, the pipeline could run dry, with ramifications for consumers, as well as some American utilities and their Russian suppliers.
Last spring, Manon Slome was walking down a street in New York City when she noticed something odd: "Store after store was closed. When stores are empty it's like, 'What's going on?' It was a feeling of siege."
Plenty of people in America could make the same observation. Nationwide, 10% of shopping center stores sit empty, according to the real-estate analytics firm Reis. That's the highest percentage of vacancies since 1992 — what you get when you mix a bad recession with a commercial real estate bust (thanks to years of overzealous building).
(See pictures of Americans in their homes.)
Slome is now among the people doing something about it. After her springtime walk, the museum curator started contacting building owners, suggesting they let her use their empty space for art exhibitions. She landed her first storefront in June: a former tackle shop was soon home to photographs, paintings and videos on the bad economy and — in homage to the space's former use — fishing. Says Slome: "It's art coming in to fill the vacuum."
The repurposing doesn't stop there. Around the country, property owners and managers are trying out new uses for empty stores. Spaces that used to house Radio Shacks and Linens 'N Things now serve as libraries, auction houses, TV studios, even block-long billboards to advertise other stores and brands.
Such endeavors are not going to solve the retail real estate glut. Only a realignment of supply and demand for long-term leases will do that. But in the short-term, getting creative with commercial space keeps storefronts filled, which helps keep properties secure and community spirit intact, and may even bring in a little money for would-be landlords to offset costs like utilities, taxes and maintenance.
...More...Last spring, Manon Slome was walking down a street in New York City when she noticed... more
In the grand tradition of Jeff Foxworthy, here's a list of tell-tale signs that you might in fact be living the life of a greenie -- hopefully, you'll get a few chuckles out of it. If you can think of one or two additional ideas to add, feel free to do so!In the grand tradition of Jeff Foxworthy, here's a list of tell-tale signs that... more
If you're a greenie, you probably already have a "thing" for recycling and can get preeeee-tty creative with empty cans and plastic bottles.
In spite of your imaginative repurposing skills, something tells me that you never considered doing what artist Jan Fabre has done for YEARS with beetles.
Talk about being a feast for the eyes....If you're a greenie, you probably already have a "thing" for recycling... more
"One man's trash is another man's treasure." For an artist, those words ring very true and can become the foundation for an extraordinary and prolific eco-art career."One man's trash is another man's treasure." For an artist, those... more
