Why creative re-use?

We are going to begin selling many of the objects that we displayed at the ART show at my Famer's Market booth on Saturday, namely Jeff's record boxes and my Dharma Bowls. Since the booth is mainly educational, I felt that I needed to explain why creative re-use is important to waste stream issues even though it saves only a tiny amount of garbage from entering landfills.

The following is the essay I wrote, printed out, enlarged and pasted to an old cabinet door as a frame.

Keeping a handful of record albums, jelly jars, light bulbs or shipping pallets out of the landfill will NOT make a serious dent in the environmental destruction that our society is causing.

So why spend the time, energy and money on re-making this small amount of garbage into decorative objects?

Because creating whimsical beauty from garbage reforms our minds.

By using garbage as the raw materials for art, we slowly begin to understand that it has value. When we place that art on display in our homes, we give what was once garbage even more value.

Once we realize -through creative re-use- that even garbage has value, it begins to dawn on us that we are wasting something valuable when we participate in this disposable society that we live in.

This realization of our own wastfulness should spur us out of our current habits - that may indeed include some recycling- into life patterns that significantly reduce our initial consumption, re-use as many resources as possible and use our buying power and political influence to force corporations and governments to do the same. That WILL make a serious dent in the environmental destruction that our society is causing.