ReUse Long Island: The Reuse Revolution Is Here.

The Reuse Revolution Is Here…

Look Ma, No Garbage!

Zero Waste Family

via Reducing Waste Zero Waste Family.

Shared with us by Friend of FullCircles, Ann Coffey.

Featured on CBC radio 1 overnight this morning…  Rubbish sorting robots.

ZenRobotics robot recyclers go for green in the CleanTech Open | VentureBeat

For such an essential part of the green economy, recycling remains a dirty, messy business. Enter ZenRobotics, which adds artificial intelligence to industrial robots to enable them to recycle construction waste. The companyrecently won Finland’s CleanTech Open competition and will represent the country at this week’s Cleantech Open Global Ideas Final.

Recycling vs. Upcycling: What is the difference?

FEBRUARY 17, 2010 BY T. CAINE 20 COMMENTS

“Over the last decade the term “Upcycling” has been coined and worked into the discourse of sustainability efforts. It appeared in William McDonough’s book, Cradle to Cradle. It has yet to earn itself mainstream popularity, but its necessity as a goal for how we should be progressing makes its definition important. Like so many things in sustainability, I come across many enthusiasts who are trying to promote the practice but may be passing around an incorrect meaning.”

Upcycling: A process that can be repeated in perpetuity of returning materials back to a pliable, usable form without degradation to their latent value—moving resources back up the supply chain.

Image via Wikipedia

Our Really Really Free Market has begun to take on a mind of its own.  We now have people contacting us to partner and that in itself is impressive.

Of course, the general market will be as it was planned from day one.  A Reuse to Reduce the amount of perfectly good items being prematurely recycled or sent to the landfill.  Drop what you don’t want; Take what you need!

The market is comprised of departments and the distribution starts at 10 a.m.  Our volunteers arrive at 8 a.m. to start setting up for drop offs that begin at 8:30 a.m.

We have invited several people to attend the market and we are expecting Vanier City Councillor Mathieu Fleury to arrive around 11 a.m.  I’m sure that Mr. Fleury will attract media attention and this is good for the ORRFM.  The more people that become aware of freecycling and gifting economies and begin to practice it, the less flow of items being prematurely recycled/trashed.

My favorite part of the market this year is Project Priceless: The Wedding Experiment.  Brian and Jordan are trying to get married for as cheap or free as possible.  I have been following Jordan as she finds creative and inventive ways to get things done.  Full Circles members have been contributing items and they will be at the market to meet, greet and collect donations from their fans.

This is not our first FullCircles Wedding,  it’s just been more publicized than most.  Our Fall market will feature the Tiny Budget Wedding and, if you have Chinese lanterns to offer, Lisa our Tiny Budget bride will be attending the spring market as a volunteer.

Of course, our eWaste Collector RD Long Computers is back with the big truck to collect all the unwanted electronics for the day.  Many will not understand this concept but in order to protect the citizens of the city, any electronics will be placed in eWaste on this particular day.  We can not risk that someones identification might be stolen by someone who is not a member of Full Circles and who can’t be found after the fact should this occur.

We are introducing for the first time a farmers/garden market.  Our sister group, Ottawa Plantcycle, will be in attendance.  We are hoping that people all over the city will want to bring seeds, cuttings, house plants and garden tools and accessories to share with other gardeners.

Once again, we will be doing a city wide donation for the Ottawa Food Bank.  The food will benefit the community and our Food Bank Sponsor, Feddie Osman from Holmes heating, will run the collection.  Feddie offers information on great H.V.A.C. deals from Holmes heating and for every sales lead Feddie donates a meal to the food bank…what more could the food bank ask for?

I am hoping for a re-purposing demonstration team to show people some of the simple things around the house that you can use for other things instead of throwing them out.  I have my milk delivered and at the top of those milk jugs are pulls that make the greatest cat toys ever.  They love to chase the plastic circles around.  I also have tops from those milk bottles that make the perfect furniture slides…so there are a lot of things you might have kicking around you never thought about using.

I have been contacted by the CIBC and they too wish to become involved.  We have been offered leaf collection bags, a very timely offer, to give away to everyone as long as supplies last.  We also hope to have volunteers from the bank helping us on that day.  Of course, we extend thanks to TD Friends of the Environment to whom we owe gratitude for their financial support for freecycling over the years with donations for such things as brochures, business cards, signage, and web hosting.

Another new addition to the market is the free BBQ and Raffle.  This is still tentative as I fill out forms trying to find donations of hot dogs, buns, drinks and a BBQ.  I have been offered a few nice items for the free raffle table.  For anyone who donates an item to the raffle your business will receive full credit and we hope that this promotes business for any business that donates.

Our media releases will start going out at the beginning of May.  We hope to welcome even more people into the market in the form of small business who want to promote themselves and share samples of their wares and we have approached several other charities in an effort to help find items for the good work that they are doing.

I will be starting our volunteer drive this week and I also want to promote our event on the free advertising pages which can be challenging.  If you know of a charity or a project that would like to show themselves off for the day you are more than welcome to give them my email address or contact me yourself.

I’m looking forward to June 4th and to meeting everyone who joins us to make this one of the greatest events that the City of Ottawa has ever seen.  Where else can you go and know that no matter what it is you do there it is all entirely FREE!

Kelly-Ann Wilson
Creator – Ottawa’s Really Really Market
Facilitator – Full Circles Ottawa

kelly@fullcircles.org

Here’s a follow up idea for repurposing and reusing discarded wooden pallets.  This is an idea we first came across 5 years ago in 2006.   We posted the idea as an “OFFER” on FullCircles Ottawa – OFFER: FREE Compost bins (some assembly required) – Tunney’s Pasture.  VERY appropriate this time of year when yard clean up is underway, and compost season is just starting!

Thanks for the prompt, Sara!

Eric Snyder
Team FCO
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Wooden Pallet Compost Bin

A very inexpensive compost bin can be made using wooden pallets. These bins cost almost nothing and you divert pallets that might otherwise end up in the landfill. This design includes a removable front to make it easy to turn the compost.

Related articles

• DIY pallet projects (holykaw.alltop.com)