Oceans Day Society hosted a blue jean event here in Victoria, to raise environmental awareness - blue jean art using 1,500 pairs of recycled blue jeans.  My question to the organizers is what happens to those jeans after the event?  Recycle2shop can upcycle every last pair into loved objects that extends blue jean life indefinitely (well, until the denim completely wears out at which point the shredded material can be composted with the zippers and metal buttons going straight to metal recycling).

So there is a Care to Air Challenge contest to highlight the eco friendly way to dry clothes and win yourself $10,000 -  sponsored by Levi Strauss & Co.

Dryers use up too much energy whereas a clothesline is a green marvel…did you know that some municipalities ‘outlaw’ clotheslines - yes, even here in Victoria, BC - one of the wealthiest neighborhoods considers them unlawful - yowzers!  That could have been acceptable thinking back in the ‘dark’ ages of abundant electricity, but is an anachronism now.  So eco congrats to Levi’s for encouraging airdrying - the epitome of cool.

Our day at the market was a complete washout - literally - at least the rain was coming straight down not sideways.  We still had some intrepid green shoppers and stall holder humour was out in force.  With Trader solidarity and a supply of fudge from Thea (our incredibly supportive market organizer) and coffee on tap from Simon we managed to have a fun damp day.

Please recycle your old denim and bring your worn out jeans down to our market stall- no matter how worn out (blue jeans not you), Leona can use every part of the  jeans by incorporating torn pieces, zippers and pockets into her work.

Recycleattire have joined the market - making beautiful attire from recycled rubber bicycle inner tubes - hats, accessories and bags incorporating ‘junk’ and artistically shaping all into wearable art.

Come and see us all at the Artisan Market near the famous Victoria Chinatown Gates every Sunday from 11 - 4.30pm.

Government Street Market on Sunday, May 2 had a surprising number of customers in spite of the cold, wind and rain.  Recycle2shop introduced a new product to the market stall - an eco bag made of recycled blue jeans (greenjeans) and recycled upholstery fabrics, the bag is lined with recycled shirt material (cotton). The bag has 4 pockets on the outside and 2 pockets inside; the bag has a zip closure.

 Latest Recycling News:

BAN (Basel Action Network),  reports Solid Waste & Recycling Magazine,  launched a “global e-waste recycler certification”  in order to regulate and prevent toxic waste dumping in Asia and Africa. 

“At the heart of the program is the e-Stewards Standard, created by BAN with the advice of industry leaders and health and environmental specialists. It calls for recyclers to eliminate exports of hazardous e-wastes to developing countries, to halt the dumping of such wastes in municipal landfills or incinerators, and to cease the use of captive prison populations to manage toxic e-wastes.

The program also calls for strict protection of customer’s private data and occupational health safeguards to ensure that workers in recycling plants are not exposed to toxic dusts and fumes.

Currently, there are about 50 e-Stewards Recyclers, each of which has passed a rigorous internal review by BAN as a preliminary step to full certification. All are regarded as responsible recyclers, and each has committed to becoming fully certified by September 2011.”  Solid Waste & Recycling Magazine May 3.2010

Green Peace and The Sierra Club are endorsing BAN’s program.

In the meantime, Ontario is using law-making to change tire disposal to tire recycling.  At the moment 50% of scrap tires are shipped as fuel in cement making kilns or to the US power plants.  This new legislation means tires will have an end use - upcycling instead of burning.  Ontario processors are increasing capacity to cope with the increase in tire recycling .  Another example of Zero Waste adding to the economy of Canada.  Other provinces take note, especially those with Premiers (B.C. for instance) who talk the green talk but not the walk.

Which brings me to the Earth Day walk on Saturday starting at 12noon, or thereabouts, at the Parliament building in Victoria and ends at Centennial Square were we will all be celebrating our love of this planet.

Grolsch Goblet

LetsRecycle reports that the cost of exporting UK recyclates to Asia has increased due to increased shipping container charges.  The West’s dependence on Third World imports of our waste material is destructive on so many levels.  Canada needs to adopt Zero Waste, which is about making recycling profitable, providing jobs and opportunities here…instead of dumping ‘over there’.

Recycle2shop.com encourages Canadian artists, craftspeople and entrepreneurs (social and other) to use recyclates (waste material) to make new products…known as ‘upcycling’ .  This closes the recycling loop -  keeping our waste in Canada, as well as the profits made from waste upcycling.

The audience was invited to ask question of the panel.  Vicky Husband (eco activist) and Elizabeth May (Green Party) both asked incisive questions that broadened the theme.  We did have to listen to the obligatory hobby horse , pontificating speakers from the audience - thankfully the moderator soon cut them short and asked them to ask the question (there’s always somebody whose ego leads them in strange directions). 

The lecture hall was standing room only, which is encouraging.

There are eco warriors making a difference who don’t often make it to print.  Today, at Fern Street Quaker Meeting we heard about a Quaker science teacher who painted a life sized blue whale on her school’s parking lot - the entire school fit inside…I bet those kids learned more about the wonder of nature than they could ever learn from a TV screen.

Circuit Board Frames

Thank you to Keith Farnish and his Earth Blog for this connection.  Keith is an environmental writer and activist living and working in the UK.

The Recycling Council of British Columbia is hosting May 25 weekend in Whistler, BC for all waste management professionals.  This means that local government officials/officers will hear speakers talking about  ’Zero Waste and Closed Loop Recycling” as the targets for producers as well as tax funded waste systems.

Gwynne Dyer and his words of wisdom: On a different but related topic I found a video of Gwynne Dyer on Transition Towns website  this is for those of us who missed his visit.