Help the enviroment and get free swag

Did you know that the majority of plastic bottle caps do not get recycled? Instead, often these caps become trash or litter, ending-up in landfills and on beaches, or washing into our rivers and oceans. Birds and marine life mistake caps for food with tragic results. The magnitude of this pollution problem is devastating to our oceans and wildlife. During the recycling process, caps are sorted from the bottles and discarded as garbage. In some circumstances, if a cap does not come off a bottle during compression, the entire bottle is discarded.
Please send us the minimum of 50 caps and we will send you a gift. Make a difference.

Caps accepted for recycling are rigid polypropylene plastic, sometimes noted with a 5 in the chasing arrows recycling symbol. This includes caps that twist on with a threaded neck such as caps on shampoo, water, soda, milk and other beverage bottles, flip top caps on tubes and food product bottles (such as ketchup and mayonnaise), laundry detergents and some jar lids such as peanut butter. Excluded from collection are pharmaceutical lids and non rigid lids such as yogurt lids, tub lids (margarine, cottage cheese), and screw on lids that are not rigid. If you can bend or break the lid with your bare hands, then it does not meet the rigid plastic definition. Please do not include any metal lids or plastic pumps or sprayers.

You will flip your lid gift
17822-B Gillette Ave
Irvine, Ca. 92614

http://www.ezekielusa.com/#dearDiary-You_will_flip_your_lid-625

Bee College

On March 12-13^th, the UF Honey Bee Research and Extension lab will be offering the 3^rd annual Bee College at UF Whitney Marine labs in St. Augustine, FL. The Bee College is Florida’s largest educational honey bee/pollinator event, and is open to everyone. We have beginner and advanced tracks, as well as classes for those who don’t even keep bees (gardening for bees, bumble bee biology, native pollinators of Fl, etc!).

We have over 20 speakers from around the country, several hands-on workshops, and of course our annual honey show. A complete schedule, speaker bios, general info, and honey show rules can be found at www.UFhoneybee.com (click Bee College on the left). There is a discount for County Agents, Master Gardeners, Master Beekeeper program participants, Students, Kids, and Master Naturalists.

In addition, we will be offering a restricted use pesticide certification class, African bee training for First Responders and Pest Control Operators, and USDA-ID/FABIS African bee identification training, with anticipated CEU credits offered.

For a complete brochure, please see www.UFhoneybee.com!

Here is a cool little experiment in urban gardening, http://www.windowfarms.org/.

Plastic Bags!

While perusing Instructables.com (a DIY site I highly recommend) I found that they have a whole section on re-purposing plastic bags: http://www.instructables.com/id/Plastic_Bags/
Though it makes me sad that my method is hardly original and much more labor-intensive, these methods are incredibly exciting! Expect to see a lot more recycled woven baggage!

Earth Hour March 27 8:30-9:30 local time

Here is the site for Earth Hour 2010:
https://www.myearthhour.org/home
Aside from individuals, cities around the world sign up to turn off all non-essential lighting in government buildings. You can lobby your city to become one of those. Universities, schools, organizations and businesses can also sign up for it. UF is currently not listed to participate.

Ideas For Collaboration ! ! ! ! !

river cleanup and make individual work inspired by the process, maybe use debris? group show. something else local to this area, the prairie, creeks, gainesvillecreeks.org

gainesville coop community involvement, sustainability, make something(food) to sell with coop/kitchen

in the mode of Baile Oakes, interactive work , visualization tool, audience controlled outcome, ability to make choices and see how it affects something

       Subcategories to be smaller part of above ideas:

       catalina's stamp project make showcard

       Make a documentary (diversity of Gainesville, multiple viewpoints)

       Must have a finite goal

Make a difference!

Greenpeace Semester Internships

The Greenpeace Organizing Term (http://www.greenpeace.org/got) is currently accepting applications for semester internships. The GOT will give you the skills and experience you need to tackle some of the biggest environmental issues on the globe.

The Organizing Term is a hands-on training program designed to give you hands on experience to learn how to be a leader in the environmental movement in your community.

During the semester, you’ll learn about current environmental issues and solutions while being trained by experts in grassroots organizing, leadership, media and campaign strategy.

You’ll have the opportunity to travel during the Greenpeace Expedition, learn how to engage in peaceful direct action, and plan on work on real Greenpeace campaigns.

On top of all of that, many students are able to receive class credit for the semester.

Apply today! Spaces in the are filling up quickly, and early applications for Summer and Fall 2010 are due March 1.

Apply at http://www.greenpeace.org/got.

The semester is offered in the Washington D.C. and San Francisco Greenpeace offices.

If you have any questions about the program, contact got@wdc.greenpeace.org or (415) 255-9194.

The Self-Sufficient Life

To those who were wondering, The Self-Sufficient Life is at http://brineandpine.com/selfsufficient/

Commenting is enabled so feel free to make suggestions :]

La Casa De Botellas

check out this article about a house made from plastic bottles. It's a creative construction!

Post to Blogs

We mentioned some blogs for DIY stuff today, and I've mentioned suggesting pages to be re-posted on popular blogs; these are a few to check out:

http://makezine.com/

http://www.instructables.com/

http://boingboing.net/

http://www.designboom.com/eng/

http://www.planet-mag.com/blog

Woo!

http://www.artistsrespond.org/about

look under exhibitions at the online gallery

Free University of Gainesville

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=41918838648

http://www.myspace.com/fugainesville

These are the links to the Facebook and Myspace pages of Free University. This is the organization I was talking about during Paul's crit as a possible way for Paul to teach his bag making. Anyone can teach a class and anyone can take a class. No one pays or gets paid. I thought maybe others might be interested in teaching or taking classes.

Harvest by Asif Khan

Hey Lisa...

I ran across this on Dezeen magazine website: http://www.dezeen.com/2010/02/11/harvest-by-asif-khan/

Asif Khan is a London designer, and he produced this installation of chairs and tables made of freeze-dried flowers. Made me think of your project one proposal...you should check it out, hope it helps :)

Sun Chips' Compostable Bag

I saw a commercial for SunChips and their new 100% compostable chip bag, coming Earth Day, 2010.

It reminded me of the "Recycling Garden" project proposal we looked at in class. At first glance I was amazed, but then I remembered the project proposals and how many "100% compostable materials" are only compostable in special conditions and not in the landfill where most of them will end up. So I decided to go check out their website and read more about the new bag.

When I saw their website I was impressed, who knew that the SunChips brand was environmentally conscious. Their whole brand revolves around a "healthier you and a healthier planet". After reading more about the brand, I was really inspired. They are trying to make their small step toward a cleaner world. Trying to lessen their contribution to the waste of the world, they went into action creating a better bag. As their first step in reducing the amount on non-renewable materials used for packaging, their current chip bag is made 33% of renewable plant based materials. This leads to their introduction of the first fully compostable chip bag of its kind, in 2010. And that's when I saw it, these innovative bags are designed to fully decompose in about 14 weeks "when placed in a hot, active compost bin or pile'. Hmmm...

But I couldn't be upset because at least they are trying...baby steps, right? And it wasn't like they were trying to hide the information from the consumer, it was underlined in the text. They also gave information as pdf files showing how they tested and filmed the compostability of the new bag, the journey to developing the better bag, a guide to taking small steps in your own backyard and composting.

Besides the bag, SunChips is helping to build the greenest town in America...Greensburg, Kansas.

After being destroyed by a devastating tornado on May 4, 2007, the town is now being rebuild from ground up as the greenest town in North America. SunChips has donated $1 million to build a solar-powered SunChips Business Incubator, designed to help small businesses get back up and running. A 13-part documentary series about the rebirth of the small town has been produced by Planet Green and Discovery Networks, in conjunction with Executive Producer Leonardo DiCaprio, "Greenburg: A Story of Community Rebuilding".

Another great thing about the brand is that they have started using solar energy instead of fossil fuels to make their chips in their plant in Modesto, California. I find it really refreshing that they admit that it's only one of their eight plants, but it's a step in the right direction for them. I think this is the right way for businesses to go. They should slowly evolve and change in moderation. The company seems more human if they can admit their flaws along with their accomplishments, not just boast about all their changes and try to be something they are not.

And WOW, I thought this was such a creative idea...check out their solar power billboard:

check out their website:

http://www.sunchips.com/index.shtml

Climate change will make world more 'fragrant'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Hey guys,
I found this cool article about flowers emitting more fragrant chemicals called biogenic volatile organic compounds as a result of global warming. They have already increased by 10% and will increase as temperature increases.

Corporate Social Responsibility

This site is an incredible source of info on corporate ethics and eco-friendliness. It can be overwhelming but their reports pertain to our daily lives as consumers. For example, here's an article/advertisement concerned with wasteful card-sending on Valentine's Day:
CSR: How Green is Your Love?

Plastic garbage patch in the ocean

Definitely Check this out!!
I know we mentioned in class one time the world of plastic there is underwater in one particular spot of the ocean. In this video, Capt. Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation discusses the main issues with plastic in relation to the ocean. I personally know that plastic bottle caps are not recyclable but there are thousands and millions of people that don't and the direct effects can be seen in this video. The use of plastic is already being discouraged in an effort to create a more environmentally friendly society but this video makes me think about how to get to the root of the problem?

Kamal Meattle on how to grow fresh air | Video on TED.com

Kamal Meattle on how to grow fresh air | Video on TED.com
This video is pretty cool because it tells us how to get cleaner fresher air indoors. It seems like it works kind of like an air filter but just naturally. It also explains why we see the areca palm often indoors in large office or county buildings.

Book for Inspiration

So, I have been looking into some book that talk about green innovations and design. I highly recommend this book. It is beautiful and has rich images of works by other artist. It was the sources of inspiration for my first project.

Green Design
by: Marcus Fairs

Did you know about all the types of acceptable plastic bags for recycling? I didn't know you could recycle cereal bags! Check it out:
http://www.plasticbagrecycling.org/plasticbag/s01_consumers.html

Also here are 2 blogs that have tips for reducing waste, both from couples who tried to create zero waste for an entire year.
The first is from New Zealand, so may have less relevance but they have great resources under "Rubbish-Free Guide" and "Links." Their blog doesn't seem to be working at the moment - ?
http://www.rubbishfreeyear.co.nz/index.php

This one is from a couple in Oregon. Again, good resources and links:
http://greengarbageproject.adammathiasdesign.com/

N55 (art collective)

N55 is a Copenhagen based art collective, begun in 1994. The members create work which is never copyrighted and free to everyone. Their site can be located here and their free manuals can be located here. Some examples of their work:
The Snail Shell System:

I love this because it reminds me of a useful, serious version of that Halliburton bubble costume from the Yes Men movie. If I could get a hitch and hook it up to my bicycle, I would bring it everywhere!
http://www.n55.dk/MANUALS/SNAIL_SHELL_SYSTEM/SSS.html

Another project by N55 relevant to ecology is called LAND:
"LAND is constructed from pieces of land in different places in the world. The various parts are added to LAND by persons who guarantee that anybody can stay in LAND and use it. Any person can initiate expansions of LAND. The geographical positions of LAND can be found in Manual for LAND. The manual is continuously updated at www.N55.dk/LAND.html. A current version can also be obtained by contacting N55." More information can be found here:
http://www.n55.dk/LAND.html

Cabott/Koppers/Beazer

We have discussed the Koppers Superfund, and I have been attending meetings hosted by Protect Gainesville Citizens for the past few weeks. It is clear to me that the site is a real concern, mostly related to the Plume as they call it, which is Arsenic contaminated groundwater that has penetrated the Hawthorn Layer. This deep soil and water contamination is not being addressed by the current cleanup plans being discussed. I encourage everyone to spend some time and do more research here:
Protect Gainesville Citizens is a non-profit organization devoted to the cleanup of the Gainesville, FL Cabott-Koppers site which is now owned by Beazer East. Wild Iris Books hosts the bi-weekly meetings for the group and is very excited at the possibility of having local artists represent this issue. They have proposed that we hold an event, an opening maybe, during the March art walk. This would be a great opportunity to interact with the public, perhaps in some performative, theatrical, or other non-traditional way. Thoughts?