Green Options

We use billions of plastic bottles every year, at a huge environmental expense. Sure, you can recycle them and feel a bit better knowing that they’ll be turned into products like Ecospun felt, but recycling requires energy and raw materials and not all plastics can even be recycled.

Why not divert all that plastic from the waste stream entirely by turning those old bottles into something new? Here are ten plastic bottle craft ideas to get you going!

Rather than toss all those catalogs and offers into the recycle bin, you may as well take advantage of the free craft supplies!

Despite our best efforts to stop marketers from sending us junk mail, the stuff still seems to find its way into our mailbox. We use some of it for things like grocery lists and keeping score when playing Scrabble, but what to do with the rest? Here are some project ideas and junk mail art inspiration.

In remembrance and in honor of all that are and have served in the U.S. military on this Memorial Day, it only seemed fitting to recall knitting efforts that have taken place during war times past.

During WWI and again in WWII, women and families picked up knitting needles to help in the war effort. The American Red Cross organized many volunteer groups that knit various items for soldiers serving overseas. Socks, sweaters, helmet liners, scarfs, caps and blankets were just a few of the items that were knit up and shipped to those serving.

During WWII, the knitting effort was further encouraged and women were told to “knit for defense” and “knit for victory.” Patterns and tutorials were readily made available to those who wanted to feel like they were contributing during this trying time, even First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was seen supporting the war effort in this way.

Rhonda wants you to get your upcycle on for fun and profit!

Her Etsy shop, The Junk Stop is full of awesome recycled goodies, and now Rhonda is hosting a contest to get us upcycling, too. It’s easy to enter, and I can’t wait to see finished projects start rolling in over on the Recycled Craft Challenge Flickr pool. The winner gets a $20 gift certificate to The Junk Stop! Here’s how you enter:

There’s been some interesting thoughts floating around the internet about rural, tacit and generational knowledge that we as a species are losing.

It seems strange to think that we could lose knowledge, especially in today’s world of information on demand, but if you think about it, certain skills and know how are hard to come by.

At the end of 2008, over one half of the world’s population lived in urban areas. Urban lifestyles come with their own characteristics and culture and so do rural lifestyles. Urban populations don’t have ready access to many of the experiences as rural populations do. General knowledge of where our food comes from for example, the simple act of gardening, knowing the planting seasons, identifying plants and knowing when to harvest; having the understanding of why bees are important, is not something that city dwellers grow up experiencing and knowing.

Based on this, I consider myself very luck to have grown up in a semi-rural area. I was close enough to a city but within easy distance to farms, lakes and rural towns. I learned many things because of this, both craft related and non-craft related and continue to acquire various tactile knowledge (err tacit, but I like tactile better) and I hope to never stop.

The Hello Craft Summit of Awesome was this past weekend, and it was fantastical! The Summit included workshops, demonstrations, and talks about all aspects of crafting and crafty business from planning a show to greening your process. I spoke on the Crafting a Green Craft panel with the amazing Liz Grotyohann and Jeff Fein-Worton of Cosa Verde and Jamie Chan and Blas Herrera from Urban Fauna Studio.

[Green Crafting Panel at the Summit of Awesome. Photo by Christy Petterson]

Inspiration
Liz and Jeff kicked things off with some green crafty eye candy. I was particularly struck by a soap-making company that they talked about: Ethically Engineered. The Chicago soap-maker produces 100% organic vegan soaps using solar-powered equipment. Even their packaging is recycled and biodegradable!

Amazing, right? That’s the sort of crafty practice that I feel like most green crafters are working to achieve. Not everyone is quite to this point yet, but don’t despair! One of the themes that ran through all of the talks on this panel was the idea that you shouldn’t let the fact that you can’t do it all stop you from lowering your crafty impact wherever you can.

In the near and distant future (2015) most disposable plastic bags you get at the local store will be made from up to 40% recycled content.

To reach this goal the American Chemistry Council announced a new initiative to invest in the collection and manufacturing of these bags. The recycling of plastic bags and wraps has escalated in recent years to an estimated 830 million pounds in 2007. This represents a 27 percent increase from 2005. Still, additional material will need to be collected for manufacturers to reach their goal. About 470 million pounds of plastic will be reclaimed for the manufacturing of new bags and will help in the development of plastic recycling and using recycled plastic content. Expect in-store recycling programs and the visibility of such programs to increase to help reach these goals.

Now, not all bags will be made from 40% recycled content and most will only achieve 25% recycled content. And it is unclear if you will be able to tell which bag contains which percentage.

So what does this mean for us crafters?

My green crafting manifesto is clear about this: I craft primarily with recycled materials, and if I can’t make a recycled material work for my project, then I use primarily natural materials–cotton, hemp, wood, etc.

Generally, this makes the positives of green crafting quite clear. When I craft with recycled materials, then I know that I’m taking positive action for the environment even if what I’m crafting with was originally some sort of resource-heavy plastic–felting around dumpster-dived plastic Easter eggs to make shaker eggs or play food for my daughters, perhaps, or incorporating costume jewelry into a new piece.

The ethics of crafting even with natural materials, however, are trickier, because you have to consider not just the nature of your material, but also its provenance.

Take wood.

Sure, Earth Day SHOULD be every day, but there’s nothing wrong with getting on board the Earth Day train on April 22. It doesn’t make you, you know, a “joiner” or anything.

And so what if we’re always supposed to be “crafting a green world?” Maybe you could craft a little greener on Earth Day. Or try something new. Or do without some awesome supply you might normally buy. Or take something weird out of your trash can and turn THAT into something awesome.

Or, since you’re already pretty green and already pretty crafty, you can just feel okay about that on Earth Day. That’s totally fine.

However, if you’re feeling extra-inspired, here are five eco-friendly projects all ready for Earth Day craftiness:

We missed this when it happened a couple of weeks ago, but a bank in South Africa has been up to some interesting advertising gimmicks. Billing itself as a “truly green bank,” Nedbank installed what is being called the world’s first billboard made from woven plastic bags in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The billboard was created using 2,000 (!) reclaimed plastic bags that were woven together to make the billboard, which measures over 120 feet in length. Nedbank employed seven crafters to create the billboard, taking them about six weeks to complete the project, making this a huge handmade project.

Turning trash into treasure is at the heart of Crafting a Green World. A green crafter sees beauty in scrap heaps, recycle bins, and objects on the side of the road. Julie talked just yesterday about making sure you know exactly what you’re working with before you start your project. Even after you’re sure you aren’t about to take a blowtorch to a rare piece of vintage vinyl or antique Colonial silver, sometimes you still need a little inspiration. Here’s a little art assemblage eye candy to get you going!