Fall 1999

Welcome to RECYCLING RAG, eco-artware.com's quarterly e-mail newsletter. We'll focus on creative ways to reuse every-day objects you might otherwise discard. We'll inspire you by telling you about craftsmen who make eco-artware.com's products.

10 Simple Ways to Reduce Holiday Waste

The ULS Report

We thought of some easy ways to waste not while wanting not during the season of parties and presents. Do you have other tried and true suggestions? Please contact us and we'll add them to the list.

1. Use sturdy brown paper grocery bags to wrap packages for mailing.
2. Send packages via the U.S. Postal Service which includes recycled materials in both its packaging materials and Express and Priority Mail envelopes.
3. Pop a present into a decorative gift bag rather than wrapping it. The bag can easily be stored and reused several times.
4. For families, start a new tradition. Decorate a large gift box. Each year a different family member will fill the box with a present for another family member. It may contain a small gift and a lot of used newspaper or a large one. Before opening it, the recipient tries to guess what's in the box.
5. Don't wrap oversized gifts like wine racks. Just tie a bow on them.
6. Purchase cookie tins and jars with tight lids at yard sales to contain gifts of homemade cookies and candy rather than buying new ones.
7. Tear a page with striking photographs or artwork from an over size magazine to wrap smaller gifts and use packing twine to tie a gift wrapped with an out-of-date map.
8. Drop off used packing peanuts at local private mailing centers. Call the Plastic Loosefill Council's Peanut Hotline at 1-800-828-2214 for the names of local business that reuse them.
9. Bring a large canvas bag when you go shopping rather than using the store's shopping bags.
10. Use gold or silver tinsel cord (available on spools) to wrap packages. It looks elegant, doesn't wrinkle and recipients can easily store the cut pieces to reuse later on.

Reusable Resource Centers

In 1980, the Global Reusable Resource Association (GRRA) in Boston began collecting excess industrial materials and distributing them to schools and community groups. This innovative recycling effort solved two problems: it gave industry a way to dispose of its wastes and excess products (besides dumping them in landfills). It provided plentiful sources of materials for art and educational projects-always in short supply.

The discards - ranging from paper and plastics to brassiere wires and car parts - find their way into endless projects: costumes, flowerpots, dinosaur homes. The uses of the industrial cast-offs are limited only by the imagination.

The project mushroomed. In 1997, 20,000 Boston-area school children benefited from over $1.5 million in donated materials. The idea spread beyond Boston. There are now more than 50 reusable resource centers throughout the U.S, and 40 centers in Europe, Australia and the Bahamas.

To encourage even more centers, the Global Reusable Resource Association, Inc. (GRRA) has written a handbook for creating and running a center. To receive a copy of "How To Create A Reusable Resource Center," send a check ($10) to: GRAA, PO Box 511001, Melbourne Beach, FL 32951, Tel, 407-956-7073, Fax, 407-984-9090.

New Activities Workbook

Now that you've collected broken pots, wrapping paper and telephone wire, what do you do with them? To inspire you, GRRA is compiling ideas and projects in a new workbook. The workbook's purpose is to help adults discover their creative self through art. Activities include:

• Creating jewelry from beads, mylar, wire and string
• Building mobiles or other 3-dimensional structures from colored foam pieces, wood or wire

These projects are designed to help people have fun. But these exercises also serve as a means to develop creative thinking in groups, from family gatherings to work groups. Look for, "Play Coaching and Art Making with Adults: A Leadership Training Guide," in late Fall. We'll give you a heads-up in our newsletter.