Reduce, Reuse, Reinspire. The first online marketplace to buy, sell and find all things recycled
Monthly Archives: February 2012
Sonic Styles Recycled Products
Today we have an interview with Ashley from Sonic Styles
Can you tell us a little about who you are?
I am a modern day hippie/ stay-at-home mom with a beautiful daughter. At night I play roller derby with Arizona Roller Derby (AZRD) and have convinced my league to help out by bringing their recyclables to me instead of throwing them in their trash. I started my home business to be able to have more time with my daughter and to keep on skating with my girls at AZRD.
Can you tell us about your products?
All my products are high quality with a low price. My speciality is vinyl records because it is a sturdy and flexible material (but can break if opened too far). Each item is hand crafted with love and therefore unique in it’s own way- no two items are exactly the same.
How to you incorporate recycled material into your products?
Not only do I use scratched, broken, and unwanted vinyl records, but I also often use broken, or unwanted jewelry in pieces like earrings and necklaces. Instead of buying new materials from major stores, I shop at thrift and second hand stores keeping all items as eco-friendly as possible while keeping the prices low. Even my packaging is hand made with recycled material or reused from another package. Using recycled material can be harder, but it’s worth it!
Why is the use of recycled materials important to you?
We only have one earth. We need to respect her by doing our part to keep her litter-free and to reduce the amount of waste in our landfills. She has provided us with everything and many people take advantage of her kindness by being wasteful. Everyone can do a part- reduce the amount of waste we produce- wash and re-use instead of buying more- recycle- buying eco-friendly products such as those sold on Recycled Market- donate unwanted ‘stuff’ to thrift stores and charitable organizations.
What does the future have in store for Sonic Styles ?
Sonic Styles is consistantly growing- spreading the word of being kind to mother earth everywhere it goes. Currently I am working on getting my eco-friendly products in the stores, not just in the United States, but all over the beautiful globe. I am always looking to expand my business in new ways.
Recycled Weekly News #3
This week’s recycled news sourced from around the net, bought to you by Recycled Market
10 Simple Ways To Upcycle found here
A garden rake-turned-necklace or scarf holder found here
Upcycled wine bottle chandelier seen here
* The PaperChair is an eco-friendly chair made from 100% recycled materials, including expired flour and old newspapers seen on inhabitat.com
* Upcycled bird feeders made with found objects found on JunkMarket
* Recycled Mardi Gras beads make worlds largest mosaic seen here
“Landfills are being filled with up to 25 million pounds [of beads] every year. Multiply that by all of the Gulf Coast and you have an environmental tragedy at our front door,” said Stephan Wanger, an artist who reuses the beads in his mosaics.
* Lastly, could edible bottles soon replace plastic? WikiCells is an edible material created from a biodegradable polymer or plastic and food particles. Essentially, it is an egg-like membrane hard shell. It can be filled with a variety of flavours, including orange juice, wine or chocolate. The product, a membrane created using a biodegradable plastic combined with food particles, could either be peeled off or potentially eaten whole. More on that story here
Greenlace Corner Vintage Fabric Toddler Shoe Sale
Greenlace corner is having a sale on all size 4 and up toddler vintage recycled fabric handmade children’s shoes, they have been reduced in price over 25%, to clear out 2011 stock, ready for a new 2012 range. Great gifts for little people!
Recycled Weekly News #2
This week’s recycled news sourced from around the net, bought to you by Recycled Market
A hockey puck, repurposed door knob, found here
This lamp found on GadgetSponge.com, was made out of a vintage minnow bucket, an old aluminum commercial strainer and a copper sauce pan as the lamp body, with recycled garden faucet handles/valves on top, a chopped candy dish as the bottom, and the base is an old lid to a pot. Finished off with a bicycle seat spring!
A tutorial to make a tiny booklet, from a recycled match book here
High School juniors win $5,000 for recycled steel water bottle plan. “Two 17-year-old juniors at East High School, Colin Johnson and Damien Gilbert, seem slightly surprised to have won $5000.” “The boys came up with a winning proposal to create steel water bottles out of recycled steel from local scrap yards” More on that story here.
5 useful ways to reuse plastic bottles found on boldsky.com
Is edible food packaging the answer to avoid plastic waste? Article found here
“Upcycling” is the buzzword in eco-conscious London during London Fashion Week.
QUT Interior Design Students created a window display from recycled materials at Artisan Gallery in Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley with only $250 and 4 weeks to complete it. Feature found here
YellowBird, Vintage Fabric Handmade Bags
Today we have an interview with Lynley Slater of YellowBird, about her beautiful range of bags made with vintage fabric.
Can you tell us a little about who you are?I have always loved sewing and spent a lot of my children’s early years trying to find a pathway into design but day-to-day life never really left me the time to explore it any further. Then, one day, my grown-up daughter, my YellowBird, asked me to make her a purse and ever since then I’ve been swept-up by the reappearance of a latent and repressed passion which I now have the opportunity to follow.
Can you tell us about your products?
The YellowBird Clutch Purse is the product, and my first love, that came from my daughters original request. Lunch with friends or a night out, each clutch has room for credit cards and essentials and with a wide range of fabrics, colours and patterns, they are add your own little bit of style.
The Venetian Hobo bags are a unique blend of a causal approach to worldly fashion, and bringing forgotten fabrics back to life. The bags are structured and stand proud as a real statement piece. The style ranges from earthy casual, to evening bling and they never fail to attract attention.
Every YellowBird purses and bags is handmade by me, is vegan friendly and has its own unique style. To maintain this unique style I do limit the use of each fabric even if that means turning down a request to remake a past item. It’s important to me that each piece maintains it’s own character and personality that never becomes lost in the crowd.
How to you incorporate recycled material into your products?I have always loved op-shopping (thrift shopping), especially shops in smaller country towns. I am amazed how often you can find the most wonderful fabrics ‘locked-away’ in a format (clothes, curtains, pillow cases & sheets) that makes them no longer wanted. I always look for ways to bring out the beauty in these old fabrics, sometimes working them into different patterns, and sometimes matching with modern designer fabrics that compliment them. I love releasing unloved doilies and runners for beautiful trims and textural effects.
I admit it, I am obsessed with buttons! I look for them everywhere and often find it very hard to part with them. If my daughter is my YellowBird then I am definitely a BowerBird!
What does the future have in store for Yellow Bird?
2012 will be a busy year for YellowBird!
I have recently found some wonderful vintage silks and can’t wait to start working with them. An oriental theme is definitely going to be added to the collection very soon!
I am looking towards some very limited designer ranges using wonderful, hand-crafted fabrics by some amazing local artists whose work I adore! I want to blend these fabrics and designs with recycled fabrics as my YellowBird designer range.
I am now set-up to expand beyond South Australia and this year will be looking to partner with like-minded retailers and markets across Australia. I love what I do but can’t keep everything, so there needs to be more homes found for YellowBird purses and bags.
Cookie Cutters from Recycled Soda Cans
Now here’s a recycling idea which is great for kids, or kids at heart! No need to buy new cookie cutters from a retail outlet, instead, obtain empty soda drink cans, clean well, flatten, cut into strips, and shape into cookie cutters.
Image c/o DIY Home Sweet Home Project
Miss Anthropists Kitchen shows us how to make recycled soda can goldfish cookie cutters…
Image c/o Miss Anthropists Kitchen
Lastly, Patti The Carbivore shows how to create a DIY pie cookie cutter with a printed image, and an aluminum baking pan, this could be replicated with a recycled soda can too.
Images c/o Patti The Carbivore
Nice use for recycled aluminum cans, yes?
Recycled Market; for Bird Lovers
A collection of recycled products available on Recycled Market, which are perfect for bird lovers.
Recycled Souvenir Teaspoon Pieces by Greg Mann Jewellery
Applique Vintage Fabric Wall Decor by leslieworks
Recycled Burlap Coffee Sleeves by GreenBeing
Bird wing recycled t-shirt DIY sewing tutorial (easy for beginners) by ChickenHill
Humming bird and bonsai tree with reclaimed wooden frame by MDC Interiors
Recycled benares silk brocade saree birds nest fabric brooch by Jewels of Sayuri
Upcycled VINYL wall clock “BIRD” by Pavel Sidorenko
Paper peacock necklace, made from recycled magazines by Factory on The Moon
Weekly Recycle News
This week’s recycled news sourced from around the net, bought to you by Recycled Market
* An article found on www.instructables.com, to upycle a cassette boom box into general purpose amplified speakers.
* An idea seen on Environmental Media Association, instead of throwing out old whisks, upcycle them into decorative lights
* Bonnie from Crafting a Green World shows us 5 Recycled Crafts for Valentines DayVideo sourced here
* An article on Whittier Daily News on the rise of criminal recycling
* Hermit crab, recycled home.. seen here
* The Grand Canyon to ban bottled water sales
* A dragon made of scrap metal, as seen on Recyclart
* Lastly, a necklace made from recycled paper, made by LaAlicia, as seen on Recycled Market!
Interview with Recycle Craft Trainer Megan Bayliss of The Junk Wave
It is with pleasure to interview eco-entrepreneur Megan Bayliss, the brains behind social enterprise The Junk Wave. Megan, a recycled craft guru, is a true inspiration, she offers professional recycled craft workshops, which have extended across Australia, and will soon be making their way to international shores.
Q. Can you tell us about what you do, and the ideas behind The Junk Wave?
Sure. In a nut shell, I train people to do craft with recycled material: material from their home that might otherwise get thrown into landfill. Post-consumer waste is such a valuable resource; it seems a shame to throw it when people could be using it in creative ways.
The Junk Wave was born to collet post-consumer junk from people, to cleanse and process it into craft ready material and to train early childhood educators, youth workers, teachers, etc how to use it as a resource in their programming. But, it became popular with Mums, kids and Grandma’s too so the trainings became workshops open to anyone interested in learning how to make things out of their post-consumer junk.
My workshops include an hour of theory on sustainability, gyres and plastic. They are also RPL compliant (see this document for a list of courses) and interested participants take away evidence required for their training organisations.
The Junk Wave is far from a traditional business model. It is a sustainable social enterprise that measures its worth against a triple bottom line:
- Good for the environment
- Good for people
- Good for finances.
Each of these things are equally important to me. My accountant husband says that finances are the bottom line and cash is king. Bah humbug….I think of my profit, my social capital, being measured against what I do for the environment, what I do for people AND what I have in my bank.
A social enterprise is an organization that applies business strategies to achieving philanthropic goals: a business that trades for a specific social, environmental or cultural purpose. The Junk Wave’s purpose is to keep junk out of landfill and oceans so that we can have a cleaner environment for our children. We do that by crafting junk and getting people to think of their waste as a resource rather than trash.
Q. Why is recycling important to you?
Our waste is killing our oceans. I was born and grew up in Papua New Guinea. When I was 13 my family moved back to Australia and settled in Cooktown. I was a coastal child. I spent much time building leisure activities and social participation around the beach and the ocean. I now live in Cairns, right on the Great Barrier Reef and the coast is my life.
As I grew-up, I saw the growing influence of junk on beaches and ocean life. It concerned me because I instinctively knew that rubbish in the ocean would change our way of life. Now after much learning I fully appreciate the science behind recycling, particularly plastics, and that post-consumer rubbish in landfill and ocean are poisoning our children’s future.
When my first grandchild was born I wanted to ensure that she grew in a world where she could experience an ocean life that includes living fish, birds, dolphins and seahorse rather than dead sea-birds full of plastics or pictures in books of animals that existed in my time.
Q. Where do you look for your creative inspiration?
I have an active and creative mind. Often a piece of junk will remind me of something so I go ahead and craft it. I also constantly think of how a new item can be alternatively made from junk: similar to those magazine spreads that suggest a budget wardrobe that achieves a designer look. I LOVE sites like pinterest and Recycled Market for idea stimulation and I work with an amazing young woman, Jess, who thinks of things that I don’t. Collective thinking and diversity breeds innovation and that is my biggest inspiration.
Q. What advice would you give to anyone that might be interested in becoming more sustainable?
For those who haven’t yet ventured into a sustainable way of life, use everything at least twice (yes, that includes your plastic milk bottles and food packaging). For those who are already comfortable with ideas of sustainability, put a REFUSE before the other four R’s: Refuse, reuse, remake, reduce, recycle last. Learn a definition of sustainability that becomes a life creed: Is it good for the environment, for people and for finances.
Q. What is on the horizon for The Junk Wave?
The sale of The Junk Wave hobby/business chapters throughout Australia, and then internationally in 2014. I am travelling my workshops more: from one end of Australia to the other. My travel is not sustainable and adds emissions to an already over stressed environment. Rather than do this, I am selling The Junk Wave hobby business chapters to interested and motivated parties all around Australia (only one person per geographic area) so that they can capitalise on training requests and referrals in their area. The chapter owners keep 100% of the income generated by them and through my referral to them. They can run their business however they want (I workshop; someone else may want to do markets, school talks, sell directly to early childhood centers, etc) but they get training and support from me, their own The Junk Wave website built on my platform which gives them instant seo, rankings and indexing and they capitalise on the data base and social media relationships I have built up….all without any of us adding travel emissions to the environment.
Q. When and where is your next Junk Wave workshop?
Bags, beads and bowls
Sydney March 3rd
Melbourne March 11th
Adelaide (dates are being discussed)
Darwin April
Thank you Megan, we can’t wait to meet you in person!
