trash walking

In mid-May I am doing a hands-on type workshop at the UCDA conference at Kutztown. We'll be building letters from trash. It will be fun. The goal is a complete alphabet of 26 letters. Each participant gets to keep their letter after the workshop. But not until my former student/photographer takes a professional photo of it. I'm going to build an alphabet poster out of it for the faculty art show.

Since I  found out in January that my proposal was accepted, I've had friends and family collecting small trash. The only rules were it had to be non-biodegradable, and small enough to fit in a coffee can or mason jar.

While I'm out walking I often think I should take a trash bag. The litter in the neighborhood is ridiculous.  But I stop myself. Since I generate so little trash I have a per bag rate. I don't want to pay to have someone else's trash removed. One day I will do it. I will fill one bag.

What I've started doing on my daily walks around the hood, is picking up small, pocket sized items for the type workshop.  Creating 26 letters will take a lot of trash. When I bring it home, I wash it and bleach much of it.

My jacket pockets are gross. I need to take small bags and put them in my pockets. And maybe a wet paper towel, too. Today I stopped at the Wawa for some napkins. The one bus ticket was so dirty I wouldn't put it in my pocket. I picked it out of piles of rotting leaves.

Yeah, I think that the phone is probably too big. But maybe the computer chip or lens can be used. Ducky can be cut in pieces (Sorry ducky).  But the doll arm is pretty great. And the little angels from those bottles of colored water which some moms let their kids drink. The nozzle might be able to be taken apart. Who knows. I have a whole container of street finds.

Dear Readers, it is not too late to save your trash. About 5 weeks remains before I need to bring it all together. Bread clips/ties, twist ties, caps ... gather up all those broken doll bits from the kids, or legos without homes ... there is nothing too wild or weird. I'm still waiting for the first condom wrapper to show up.

It would be a great time to thank those who have added to my trash pile. The Ackerman-Parry household is sending huge amounts of little unique trash. Partially because she works in food service. My brother Dave and his wife Barb are also sending yogurt containers full of cool stuff like wine corks. (I've spent quality time on YouTube learning how to safely cut wine corks.) Bonnie has sent some great trash like plastic birthday picks. And is going to clean out the miscellaneous stuff from her craft supplies.

One day I'm going to have to stop at one of the numerous bars and ask for bottle tops. I have lots of corks, lots of plastic lids, but no traditional bottle caps.