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  • “Trash Photos” Series

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    Trash Photos XIX: A Visit to Minas’ Center on Waste

    Thursday, June 25th, 2009

    Yesterday I visited an institution in Belo Horizonte (BH) that, to my knowledge, is unique in Brazil, if not the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).   The Minas Waste Reference Center (Centro Mineiro de Referência em Resíduos – CMRR) opened in 2007 with the mission to serve as the focal point in the […]

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    Trash Photos XVIII: Fluorescent Lamp Collection in Brasilia

    Thursday, June 18th, 2009

    I’m in Brasilia now, and had some time between meetings, so I wandered through Patio Brasil, one of the shopping centers here.  If times allows, I like to wander through shopping centers in the cities that I visit.  I do it not so much for actual shopping or even window-shopping in the usual sense, but […]

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    Trash Photos XVII: Color-Coded Selective Collection

    Monday, June 15th, 2009

    Today I interviewed someone in the University of São Paulo’s (USP) Public Health Faculty (FSP) (the lead author in a study about catadores, as a matter of fact) and I spotted this in the mini-park in front of the building. These days it’s not hard to find color-coded collection bins in Brazil, particularly in the […]

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    Trash Photos XVI: Furniture Made with PET Bottles

    Sunday, April 26th, 2009

    Back in January I posted about making furniture made from scrap tires that serves not only to “upcycle” (as my friend Leila insists I call it!) waste but also to help unemployed or low-income Brazilians earn income.  At the time I intended to post a week or two later about similar projects involving furniture made […]

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    Trash Photos XV: Clothes and Accessories from Trash

    Sunday, January 18th, 2009

    Two years ago I did a post about a conference of catadores (waste pickers) in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, that featured a “fashion show” of clothing made from recovered materials, including a dress made from used calling cards. The Brazilians are nothing if not creative.  There are now several who spend much time dreaming up […]

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    Trash Photos XIV: From Used Tires to Furniture

    Tuesday, January 6th, 2009

    I’ve mentioned here in the past my constant struggle with having more to blog about than I have time to blog, and the resulting build-up of a long backlog queue of post drafts, some of them dating back to the early days of The Temas Blog. This post, I am ashamed to admit, is one […]

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    Trash Photos XIII: Cool Purses

    Wednesday, September 26th, 2007

    Last year while discussing what I like to call "creative recycling," I introduced you to a purse made of used drink can tabs liberated from the waste stream, plus thread and a thin chain.  At the time, I invited readers to alert me to any more examples of "an interesting or ingenious product made of […]

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    Trash Photos XII: ¡Viva la Botella!

    Monday, July 23rd, 2007

    “¡Viva la Botella!” was the title of a brief e-mail reply sent to me recently by Andreas Froese, the man behind the construction projects utilizing used PET bottles and tire rims in Honduras I profiled some months ago, and author of the companion guest post (in Spanish) to that profile”Como tener éxito trabajando con ‘basura’ […]

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    Trash Photos XI: A Visit to the Landfill

    Thursday, February 8th, 2007

    Someone recently asked whatever happened to my “Trash Photo” series. No, folks, I did not run out of trash- or recycling-related photos — not likely to happen anytime soon! No, I didn’t tire of posting in the series. I’m always ready to “talk trash.” (All right, keep the groans about my puns to a minimum!) […]

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    Trash Photos X: A Stunning Christmas Tree Made with Recyclables

    Monday, December 11th, 2006

    Hope you are not yet tired of pictures of the creative way people are taking everyday used recyclable material and turning them into Christmas trees and decorations. I just found this one, and it’s stunning! The 64-year old Brazilian grandmother who decorated this tree did so with used wrapping paper, yogurt cups, PET bottles and […]

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