Tag Archives: recycling

Chicago Program Takes Fridge Recycling to the Streets

Posted on January 30, 2013 by

Midwest Energy News recently mentioned a quirky art project sponsored by Commonwealth Edison, an Illinois electric utility. To promote its refrigerator recycling program, the utility paid artists to take its message to the streets by recycling refrigerators. The reworked refrigerators … Continue reading →

Posted in art, cities, energy, environment | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Turning Electronics into Sculptures

Posted on September 11, 2012 by

Electronic waste often ends up in places where it isn’t appreciated. Sometimes, it ends its life cycle in fiery pits in China and other countries. MIT students have tracked urban trash and found that e-waste ends up in all kinds … Continue reading →

Posted in art, creativity, environment, recycling | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Saving Sea Turtles from a Plastic Dinner

Posted on July 7, 2012 by

Leatherback sea turtles are tough, but waterborne plastic can kill them. See Turtles, a nonprofit organization, says “hundreds of thousands of sea turtles… die each year from ocean pollution and ingestion or entanglement in marine debris.” Many of these pieces … Continue reading →

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Why Journalism Is like Dumpster Diving

Posted on January 13, 2012 by

After reading an article from Grist’s Greenie Pig series, I decided to write a post comparing dumpster diving and journalism. I have a colorful history with dumpster diving – literally. During college, I was nabbed by a bee while pulling … Continue reading →

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Where in the World Are Your Cell Phones Going?

Posted on August 15, 2011 by

“That’s the infuriating part of this — people who are really trying to do the right thing [and] going to the trouble of taking their old stuff to some place thinking it’s going to be recycled have no idea that … Continue reading →

Posted in economy, environment, manufacturing, science communication | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

On the Trail of Our Garbage Trucks

Posted on March 12, 2011 by

Where in the world are our cell phones going? It shouldn’t be as difficult to answer this question as it is to find Carmen Sandiego. MIT’s Senseable City Lab produced an award-winning Trash Track website which shows that it does … Continue reading →

Posted in DIY, environment, manufacturing | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Keeping It Simple: The Holiday Post

Posted on December 26, 2010 by

Although recent headlines say consumer spending in the United States is rebounding after the recession, I spent part of the holiday season doing the opposite of shopping. I cleaned my entire apartment and collected six boxes of items to donate to … Continue reading →

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Subverting the plastic bottle

Posted on February 25, 2010 by

Trash Menagerie, a show in the Art and Nature Center at the Peabody Essex Museum, uses recycled materials to tell the story of our view of objects and our choices about what is disposable. If we saw these objects differently, … Continue reading →

Posted in art, DIY, environment | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Invisible Hand of Plastic

Posted on August 20, 2009 by

Edited 4/25/2011: Here’s an update on the plastic that is floating in the Pacific Ocean. So there is a lot of plastic in the ocean, but the Pacific garbage patch is NOT nearly the size of Texas: http://bit.ly/gFj39K *** Plastic is … Continue reading →

Posted in DIY, environment, food | Tagged , | 6 Comments