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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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    Using Crafts to Promote Recycling and Employment

    Monday, October 1st, 2007

    Last week I introduced you to some cool purses made in Rio de Janeiro and Maranhão from recycled materials, such as banana fiber and PET from drink bottles. Here’s more, this time from Curitiba, the capital of Paraná.  Curitiba has a longstanding and well-deserved reputation for promoting recycling through environmental education. Thus it is not […]

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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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    Trash Photos IX: A Very Special Fashion Show

    Saturday, December 9th, 2006

    The picture at right is from a fashion show now underway in Belo Horizonte (capital of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais) for dresses, pants, blouses and accessories. Why is it featured here? Look closer.  The dress that first model is wearing is made from used telephone calling cards stitched together.  In fact, all the […]

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    Trash Photos VIII: More Christmas Trees Made from Recyclables

    Monday, November 27th, 2006

    I’ve found some interesting examples of elementary school competitions in Brazil getting classes to construct Christmas trees from recyclable packaging waste — whether plastic bottles (whole or sliced up), plastic bags, metal cans, or even aseptic drink boxes (Tetra brik). They are, of course, accompanied by discussion with the kids of the different materials, why […]

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    Como tener éxito trabajando con “basura” en Latinoamérica

    Tuesday, November 21st, 2006

    In Part I I looked at Andreas’ work on building housing and other structures out of discarded materials such as PET bottles and tire rims. Here is a guest blog authored by Andreas himself. I asked him to share the challenges he faced in making such projects successful in a poor country such as Honduras, […]

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    More Construction with PET Bottles

    Tuesday, November 21st, 2006

    In a prior entry I introduced you to Brazilian experiments with constructing homes using PET bottles. Today I’ll introduce you to Andreas Froese, a man who not only did it first in Honduras, but has gone much beyond the experimental stages to actually build over a dozen homes and community centers made of PET bottles, […]

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    Trash Photos VII: A Christmas Tree Made of PET Bottles

    Saturday, November 18th, 2006

    You have to hand it to the Brazilians! They not only find creative ways to turn wastes into art, they do it with their own sense of style. This is the municipal “Christmas tree” made mostly of used PET bottles greeting visitors this season in the town of Novo Friburgo, Rio de Janeiro.

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    Recycling Coconuts II: Need Anything Be Wasted?

    Tuesday, October 31st, 2006

    In Part I I looked at how some projects have sprung up in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to convert those “empty” coconut husks discarded after agua de coco is served or bottled/packaged into useful products, such as flower pots, plant basket liners or “growing walls.” But the market potential for such products may […]

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