By Miriam Wilcox-Barsalou,on September 25th,2010%  From time to time a structure is built to illustrate a point about the wastefulness of our society. The building is made of hundred to hundreds of thousands of objects that would be found in our society’s waste stream. Often the objects are part of packaging. Here are a couple recent examples Beer Crate Pavilion Currently located in Brussels,from a distance the building looks like it is constructed of giant yellow Lego blocks. It was constructed in 2008 by Belgian and UK architecture firm SHSH to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Expo 1958. These “Lego”blocks are . . . →Read More:Plastic Structures By Miriam Wilcox-Barsalou,on August 25th,2010%  I visited one of my college professors yesterday and we had a fantastic conversation about the benefits and flaws of plastics as related to my blog. He brought up an excellent point about the most vilified product in our society,plastic disposable water bottles. Water bottles are extensively distributed in disaster areas. The local water quality in undermined and it’s important to quickly distribute safe water to hundreds,possibly thousands of local victims. The prepackaged water containers are readily available and can be shipped out immediately. Source:Jae C. Hong,AP As for the choice of plastic for . . . →Read More:Plastics in Humanitarian Uses By Miriam Wilcox-Barsalou,on August 3rd,2010%  Reusing plastic bottles to make objects that float in the sea seems popular this summer. The Plastiki catamaran,a boat made mostly of recycled and reused plastics,recently completed a voyage from San Fransisco to Sydney,Australia. Vancouver,British Columbia is currently home to a floating dining room. This raft-like structure floats on 1675 2-liter plastic cola bottles. It seats 12 in an elegant dining establishment. The School of Fish Foundation and the C Restaurant cater an elegant 6 course meal of sustainable seafood. It is a goal of the foundation that culinary schools should include sustainable seafood education . . . →Read More:Dining on Plastic Bottles By Miriam Wilcox-Barsalou,on July 25th,2010% Annie Leonard has a project called The Story of Stuff. Every one of the videos is entertaining,interesting and educational. She tries to explain our stuff based economy. Where our objects come from,and where they end up downstream. One of my favorite Story of Stuff videos is about plastic water bottles. It’s been making the rounds on the internet for at least half a year. I wanted to share it on this blog because it explains so much of the plastic water bottle cycle. The Story of Bottled Water is an 8 minute video of the life . . . →Read More:Annie Leonard Explains Bottled Water By Miriam Wilcox-Barsalou,on July 23rd,2010%  People seem to have different reasons why they chose to drink out of plastic water bottles. For some,it’s a matter of convenience. A sudden dehydration when they are on the go. This is why I have issues with communities banning plastic water bottles. Without available water,will people have to drink high sugar drinks. (On a side note,this once happened to me in Las Vegas. While the water was in outdoor pools and fountains all around me,evaporating into the desert air,a bottle of water was hard to find and significantly more expensive than the beer.) . . . →Read More:Filter for Good | CreditsBlog design elements by Kate HadfieldUsed as non-profit generating blog TOU |
