Have you ever pitched your cup at Starbucks and stood horrified by the sheer volume of trash produced by coffee-to-go consumers? Stirring sticks, cups, lids, java jackets, sugar packets, straws, napkins - all of it tossed into the teeming g-can twenty minutes after a drink is drank. I wonder how many pounds of garbage just one Starbucks location produces each day? How can we recycle these materials to cut down on all that waste? Dan Winters has found a solution: turn your coffee trash into an art supply. Winters, a contributing photographer at Wired magazine, used Starbucks cups, lids, drink holders, coffee boxes, and stirring sticks to create the Star Wars TIE Fighter sculpture pictured here. Inspired by Winters’s awesome resourcefulness, Wired is hosting a “Make Your Own Art Out of Starbucks Junk” contest. Take a photo of your creation (glue, tape, and string are allowed) and send it in. They’ll feature their favorites in an online slideshow. (Read more about the contest, including instructions on submitting your work here).
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Speaking of creative uses for trash, on Tuesday July 28, Thursday July 30, and Tuesday August 4 from 6-8 pm. the LOFT invites middle and high school students (parents are welcome too!) to turn “garbage” into great-looking runway outfits. Fashions will be modeled at the 3rd annual Trashy Fashion Show, sponsored by SWANCC (Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County) on November 15, 2009 and held at Park Center in Glenview. Over the course of 3 sessions, fashions and accessories will be made from materials usually thrown away or recycled — like newspapers, plastic bottle caps, and broken jewelry. The FREE workshop sessions will be held at the Evanston Public Library. Register here.
