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Friday, October 29, 2010

From 'trash' to art

I had a rare moment tonight, in which I got to listen to NPR — a favorite pastime of mine when I used to get stuck in hours of traffic on my way home from work in L.A.

I got to hear Kai Ryssdal's beautiful voice on Marketplace (he looks different in person than I would have imagined), but I also got to hear this interesting story about a documentary about men and women in Brazil who sift through the largest landfill in the world in Rio de Janeiro looking for recyclables, and the work of Brooklyn-based artist Vik Muniz, who photographed and created fine art based on the photographs and using trash from the landfill.

For the men and women in this documentary, this is a way of making a living — they sell the recyclables to wholesalers. For Muniz, his work is ostensibly a way to make a difference in these people's lives. It's inspiring to see something so beautiful coming out of/being inspired by the "pickers'" work.

Listen to the story:


Watch the trailer:

"Waste Land" opened in New York today. I enjoyed hearing about it. Now, I look forward to (hopefully) seeing it.

2 comments:

Kaity Teer said...

What a beautiful story! So glad I found your blog! It's good timing because we have No Impact Man from Netflix for this weekend. Any ideas for composting if you live in an apartment?

Live. Love. Recycle. said...

Thanks so much for your comment. You have to tell me how "No Impact Man" was! I read the book last year, and the movie is definitely on my list to see.

I'm sorry to say I don't have any experience composting in an apartment setting. But I have heard of composting services in some places (a friend of a friend in Santa Fe, N.M., started a business of going around to neighbors' houses and collecting their compostables). Something to look in to.

From a quick search, it seems vericompost (worms) may be the way to go in an apartment. New York magazine has an interesting article about worm bins in a one-bedroom, but doesn't really go into the specifics. But I'm sure there are more comprehensive articles out there. Let me know how it goes.

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