Waste Less Art & Education

Have you heard the terms Upcycling or Creative Reuse before? Creative Reuse is a great way to get people thinking, talking, and actively doing waste prevention. By creating something from trash, we teach children and adults that art-making doesn’t need to be expensive and that we are already surrounded by an abundance of free materials (resources) to create with. Through creating with reuse items, we learn to problem solve, imagine possibilities, and reconstruct something that has little value into something priceless. The lessons and skills that are learned during the reuse art-making process can be applied toward finding solutions to climate change, environmental sustainability, and other worthy tasks. So let’s start creating! 

There are two creative reuse centers in Oregon. One is SCRAP PDX and in Eugene, there is MECCA. These centers not only collect discards and waste from businesses and residents, saving them from the solid waste stream, but they also host events and teach classes to get residents excited about resource recovery.