EAA invites you to submit a funny, creative video portraying how each of us can reduce our environmental impact and what we can do to protect Mother Earth.

Topics include but are not limited to: energy & water conservation, recycling, composting, buying local, reusing, and consumption, etc.

Anyone 18 years or older living in US is invited to use a camcorder, camera or mobile device to record a video clip two minutes or less.

To enter, you can upload the video to either of the following:

1. EAA Facebook Page ‘Environment Action Association
2. Your “YouTube” account under the subject of EAANYC-The Greener me, The Better us and tag EAANYC.

Videos will be judged on originality, creativity, adherence to theme and number of page views generated.

The contest runs from Jan 5 to March 5, 2012. Winning videos will be announced on Earth Day and available for online viewing at environmentaa.org and on the EAA facebook page.

Rules of the contest:

• Videos must be PG rated
• Videos should be 2 minutes or less
• Finished videos must be uploaded to YouTube
• You may submit more than one video
• If filming others, you must have their permission before it gets posted to YouTube
• Videos must be posted and the link along with the entry form sent to eaanyc@gmail.com by no later than midnight Eastern Time, Monday, 5 March 2012 to be included in the competition.
• Entry forms are available upon request by emailing eaanyc@gmail.com

Prizes:

1. First place -$300 cash
2. Second place -$200 cash
3. Third place -$100 cash

The Environment Action Association reserves the right to eliminate any video is done is poor taste, deemed inappropriate and/or does not meet the requirements above.

Source: Reusable Bags

Farai is a member of the Mother City Craft Collective, a collective of traffic-light crafters who you can see selling their wares as you drive through the streets of Cape Town.   This group of Zimbabwean crafters have joined forces to expand their market and create an alternative outlet for their crafts, an online shop.  This has brought a new set of challenges for these artists, because the traditional wire & bead and wirework crafts that they produce are pretty heavy, which results in very high postage costs.

To reduce the price of postage (and consequently the carbon footprint of the piece) Farai has come up with an interesting solution.  He’s using recycled materials that are a lot lighter than the materials that he usually works with.

These recycled Coke can animals and more are available from the Mother City Craft Collective’s recycled range, and as you’ll see, both the cost of the products and the postage costs are considerably less than the traditional.  While buying crafts from this store makes a huge difference in the lives of these traffic-light crafters, by choosing from the recycled range you will be making a huge difference to the environment too.

So while necessity is the mother of invention, isn’t it great when it also leads to recycling, reusing and a greener way of doing things?

No time to read this?  Then please just click on over here to see what I’m doing now.

Life changed considerably when we moved from the UK to South Africa in 2008.  It’s a completely different lifestyle, and being green can be quite a challenge here at times.   We’ve moved 4 times in the past two years, so it’s been difficult to put down roots properly and set up an eco-friendly home the way we did in England.  Our last move was 6 months ago now, and yes, we’re finally putting roots down and making plans to transform our new home into an even more eco-friendly place than our English home.   But in the meantime, something else has been taking my attention.  And that is the desperate need of so many people here in Cape Town.

Poverty is rife here.  There are some who have lots and some who have enough to live comfortably (we are fortunate to fall into this category), but there are millions of people here have to stuggle on a daily basis just to feed their families and provide a roof over their heads.

When we moved six months ago, it was to a home in a wonderful part of Cape Town called Newlands.  It was here that I met a crowd of Zimbabwean crafters who make their crafts from recycled materials where possible (for purely economic reasons).  Most of them live in Delft, a township on the outskirts of Cape Town that is notorious for its high crime rate and high unemployment rate.  They work at night, making beautiful artworks that they then sell during the day at traffic lights in Newlands.  It all sounds like a great micro-business plan, until you see your first police raid!  You see, it’s illegal to sell anything at the traffic lights in Cape Town.

The first time that I witnessed a police raid on the craft sellers at the traffic lights it really shook me up.  Police arrived in numbers and chased the craft sellers in all directions.  Those who managed to get away lost the wares that they had to drop or leave behind in their hurry to get away.  Once the police had caught a few of the sellers and loaded them into the back of the police van, they then came back to the lights to pick up their wares.

My first feelings were those of outrage and indignation.  How dare the police spend their resources on bullying these guys who are trying to be creative and make an honest living.  There is plenty of crime in this country that could really do with the attention of the police.  Murderers, hijackers, rapists, burglars, there are plenty of them at large.   Gentle creative people, displaced people trying to earn an honest buck, they really don’t need this harassment.  They need support and encouragement.

So the following day I took a walk to the lights to go and talk to these guys.  I asked about what had happened yesterday with the police.  They were very eager to tell their stories and told me that this was something that happened regularly.   I asked about their crafts, what happened to them after the police took them, could they get them back.   I was told that sometimes those who are caught and have their goods confiscated are given a ticket by the police and told that they can retrieve their goods from the police station by paying an admission of guilt fine (somewhere in the region of R200 per item).  This is usually prohibitively expensive, and more than the materials cost, often more than what the crafter can sell his wares for.  Other times, the goods are just taken without receipt (because it’s better to run away, lose your stock and be free to go home and make more, than to risk being arrested and spending the night in jail).  Often, bags, jackets and other belongings are also taken and never seen again.

I spent weeks mulling over this sad state of affairs.  It didn’t sit right with me.  I felt drawn to help these guys.  A few months down the line, and I’d formulated a plan and invited two of the crafters that I had got to know fairly well to join me in setting it up.

And so we started the Mother City Craft Collective, an online outlet for the arts and crafts that are currently being sold at the traffic lights n Newlands.  The goal of the project is to drum up enough sales online so that these guys don’t have to sell their goods at the traffic lights anymore.

We’ve started the project with no capital or funding, simply volunteering our time and expertise.  It’s been a slow start and at times very frustrating.   We decided to register as a cc with 3 members so that the two Zimbabwean crafters who started the project with me could apply for their business permits.  This proved impossible to navigate with CIPRO as the two Zimbabweans didn’t have South African identification documents and we ended up in a catch 22 situation where you need a business permit to get your identification document, but you can’t get the business permit without the identification document.

Our website took me quite a while to get going (I’m no web designer, just a blogging housewife after all), but we’re there now, and we have a showcase for some of the wares.  We’ve also expanded our collective from 3 to 5 people, and as soon as sales pick up, we’d like to expand this further.

Sadly, because it’s taking time to drum up sales (we’ve only had 2 sales at time of writing this), these guys are still having to support themselves by working at the traffic lights, and still taking the risks everyday of being arrested and having their goods confiscated.

Just this past weekend, one of the guys was walking through the park on the way to the traffic lights when he was stopped by the police and had all his stock confiscated.  They took well over R1000 worth of stock, and it will cost him over R800 to get it back.  R800 that he doesn’t have.  And so it carries on.

The reason why I’m telling this story here is because I’m hoping that EcoStreet readers (those that are still bothering to check this site now that I’m not updating it very often) will be interested in what we are doing.  The members of this collective and I would be immensely grateful if you would follow us on Twitter, like our Facebook page, and most importantly tell everyone you know about what we are doing, what we would like to achieve and how we need customers to make this possible.

Thanks so much for reading this and before I go, here’s our website address again: http://www.mothercitycraftcollective.co.za

Alex Makumbe collects reclaimed chipboard and old cans to make his Cape Town scenes.   This is how he makes a living. Alex came to Cape Town from Harare in Zimbabwe 8 years ago and has been making a living as an African folk artist selling his work at the traffic lights ever since.

Recently Alex has teamed up with three other Cape Town crafters to sell their work online and to the whole world via their Mother City Craft Collective Etsy shop.

He is selling custom made collages, or you can choose one he’s already done.  Have a look.

Alex’s artwork is available from the Mother City Craft Collective Etsy shop.

You are invited to a workshop for those who would like to participate in future HumanEarth exhibitions to brainstorm the concept of HumanEarth.

HumanEarth Exhibitions is a sector of Ecojunki.  It is a series of exhibitions centered around the theme of human interaction with nature.  The goal of the project is to raise awareness of the ways in which we harm the planet and also of the ways in which we live in harmony with it.

The purpose of the brainstorm is to explore

• What HumanEarth means
• Set out the basic parameters of forthcoming exhibitions
• Network
• Exchanging creative thoughts with other artists and participants

Join us at

The Greatmore Studio
47-49 Greatmore Street
Woodstock
7915

on the 30 Sept 2010 from 18:30 till 21:00

for wine, music, good company and lots of creativity.

For more information contact:
Nastasha Daniels, 084 676 1053, nastasha797@gmail.com

This brainstorming workshop is part of the Creative Week Cape Town:
http://www.creativeweekct.co.za/events/humanearth-brainstorming-workshop/

Follow @ecojunki on Twitter

But back to the point because I actually want to show you some pretty things made of plastic bottles.

This green aque mobile is from Denise Carbonell’s flickr.  Isn’t it great?

And here’s one that I made.

I used washed 2-litre milk bottles and cut the flowers out free-hand with a pair of kitchen shears.   Before threading through the raw silk yarn (you could use ordinary string or wool or embroidery cotton or even plarn), I punched holes in the plastic where I was going to stitch.

And now a not so pretty thing to make from a plastic bottle, but very useful for knitters.

Check out the yarn holder from an old plastic bottle Instructable here.

Title: Drum Kit
Year: 2003
Materials: tin cans, metal wire
Dimensions: L 27 cm W 22 cm H 16 cm

[Recyclart]

This blog post is cross-posted at ecojunki.

Global climate change is the largest threat to sustaining life on Earth, but despite overwhelming evidence
– species extinction, dwindling water supplies, mass migrations and
mega-storms — some of us are still unclear what climate really means for us.

The CoolClimate online art contest will be exploring climate change in its many
forms and invites artists worldwide to participate. How is climate change impacting our lives? What can be done to ensure a sustainable future for all of Earth’s inhabitants.

Artist brief: submit a work of art that explores our relationship with the climate
– from clean energy jobs to pollution-free oceans – the subject choice is yours.
You can submit a piece you’ve already made, or pass this blog post along and get an
artist friend involved. Post your art on www.coolclimate.deviantart.com and you
will be eligible to win prizes, be featured on the Planet Green Planet100 show
and be displayed at key leader events nationwide on 10/10/10.

A panel of judges will select 20 finalists whose works will be shown on the Huffington Post and the winner chosen by public vote.

Submissions close on the 6th September 2010. Enter here.