Waste Land

What an incredibly creative, inspiring, joyous and wonderful film Waste Land is.

Just released at the Sydney Film Festival about the artist Vik Muniz and a team of garbage (recyclable material) scavengers in the world's largest landfill in Rio.

Watch the trailer here and interview with the film maker Lucy Walker here

Transforming garbage into contemporary art. A process of transformation all around.

Look out for Countdown to Zero about nuclear weapons, also by Lucy Walker later this year.

Life, love and a plastic bag.

This is so beautiful, poignant and brilliant. The story of life, love and the sea. 

Futurestates Plastic Bag

                                                          

Plastiki sets sail.

I wrote about the amazing David de Rothschild and his wonderful Plastiki made from plastic bottles and recycled materials last year.  It is sailing across the world to raise awareness about ocean pollution and inspire rethinking about waste.

The Plastiki set sail from San Francisco this weekend, and will reach Sydney in 100 days. See more here Plastiki  and here Plastiki.

The Plastiki has solar power, a vertical vegetable garden and is fully recyclable at the end of its journey. It is put together with a glue made from cashew nuts and sugar.

Brilliant innovation with an adventurous spirit.

Wishing them all a safe, happy and successful voyage, and we all look forward to welcoming them to Sydney later this year.

Follow the adventures here The Plastiki here Plastiki on Twitter and here Plastiki on Facebook.

Tick tock ....

This cute little birdie will cheep cheep cheep you awake. Download it onto your phone, and pop it in the bird house while you sleep sweetly. http://www.luckybite.com/luckybits/

The cup that lives longer than you do.

 

Each year American throw away 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam cups. Even 500 years from now, the foam coffee cup used this morning will be sitting in landfill.

Artist Tara Donovan is showing at this year's Adelaide Biennale. Apart we are together. 

http://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/servlet/Web?s=2290869&p=tara_donovan

Donovan uses everyday manufactured materials such as Styrofoam cups, sticky tape and drinking straws to create large scale sculptures that often have a biomorphic quality. Her sculptures must be assembled and disassembled carefully, which sometimes involve an extremely tedious process. With regards to her artistic process, Donovan explained that she chooses the material before she decides what can be done with it. She noted in an interview that she thinks "in terms of infinity, of the materials expanding."

A far more creative use than just sending the cups to landfill. 

Have a look here at some more wild statistics of the waste the USA alone generates.

http://www.epa.gov/reg3wcmd/solidwasterecyclingfacts.htm

Styrofoam also swims around in the ocean and ends up in places like this foamy beach. There is no away. 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/inpeninsulacoastside/detail?entry_id=55995

Part of history

Thank you everyone for your basket making magic and creativity. In less than a month, we have made hundreds of baskets and saved thousands of plastic bags from landfill and the sea.

Each one is a unique little beauty!

We will have the baskets on exhibition at The Sydney Opera House, as part of over 4,600 actions in more than 170 countries around the world.

October 24th is the 350.org international day of climate action, where people all over the world make their voices heard, calling on leaders to reduce carbon levels in the atmosphere to a safe level of 350 parts per million, and calling for a safe future.

It is the largest collective display of action to fight climate change the world has ever seen.

Find out more here  http://www.350.org/ and follow some of the amazing actions here on Twitter http://twitter.com/350


Here's a picture of the baskets taken at Bondi Beach.

Thank you fellow gritters Julie, Rena, Floria, Bea, Sue, Kylie, Annie, Paula, Yumi, Tobhi, Sam, Bridget,  Taka, Bev, Melanie, Petrina, Vanessa, Finn, Lana, Scarlet, Pepe, Joe, Maya, Di, Harvey, Jackie, Sabrina, Sue, Jessika, Tom, Rachel, Dave, Phillip, Alison, Stefanie, Janos, Sacha, Kirsty, Martha, Sarah, Melanie, Roman, Lola, Piper, Jane, Judge, Sally, Imogen, Felix, Felicity, Kitty, Marti, Tess, Luke, Jo, Bambi, Melissa, Susie, Andre, Kate, Kaye and all the other brilliant Gritters.

We will let you know about where the exhibition will be going after the Opera House.

Knitty Gritty and Loopy action for 350.org

Today we had a fantastic and productive day making baskets. Old plastic bags, bread and fruit bags, newspaper and dry cleaning wrap, garbage bags, mattress wrap...no bit of plastic was safe. Young and old, we wove, crocheted, knitted and plarned. There are 19 days to go until we exhibit our baskets at the Sydney Opera House for the 350.org international day of climate action.

There are 350 frisbees being thrown in Brisbane, 350 t-shirts being printed in Adelaide, scuba divers, surfers, skiers and lantern walkers all doing things to draw attention to the number that defines our future. 1,736 actions in 139 countries. For actions near you, have a look here.  http://www.350.org/action-list and to find out more about 350, have a look here http://www.350.org/about

Come along to GreenUps on Tuesday night and join us in some live crafting action. Bring some old bags and needles. We have made 50 baskets ...300 to go. http://greenups.net/

We will also be making baskets together next Sunday and the following Sunday. Have a look here for details. http://knittygrittyandloopy.blogspot.com/ You can also drop off your baskets to us on Tuesday night, Sunday or drop them into the Ivan Dougherty Gallery.http://www.cofa.unsw.edu.au/galleries/idg/about.html

Knitty Gritty and Loopy for 350.

Last night we made more baskets from plastic bags, newspaper wrap, drycleaning bags and mattress cover bags. They were knitted, crocheted and woven, and each one has its own unique character and style.

Here are some pictures, including the before and after.

Please join us in making baskets for 350.org. They're to be exhibited on the international day of Climate Change Action on October 24th. We've made 20...330 to go.

http://www.350.org/ and join us at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=151602005199