Art From Scrap

I just came back from Santa Barbara, and visited the most amazing, innovative store. It is called Art from Scrap(http://www.artfromscrap.org). It is a nonprofit that truly lives the common phrase you hear today, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. The concept is this. Scraps are donated to the store by everyone and anyone, from individuals that have buttons to get rid of, to manufacturers who have excess product, such as tile, carpet samples, pieces of foam, old box springs, marbles,, paper, wallpaper, just about anything you can think of. Schools in the area pay $1 per student per year and teachers come and use the materials with their classes to create beautiful art. Camps and adults also come to the studio and pay to create their own masterpieces. Some of what is created is quite amazing. Each year they have a fund raiser, auctioning off many pieces of art, sometimes at very hefty prices. Sorry I can't show it to you, but I was unable to get permission from any of the artists to print their work.

This is an example of taking recycled materials and reusing them. This reduces the waste in landfills by millions of pounds per year. Hopefully these businesses will be popping up all over the country in the near future. What a wonderful way to recycle and reuse.