Zass design

While walking around the booths at the DC Green Fest a few weeks ago, I came across Zass Designs. Their innovative jewelry collection made from upcycled print media  and plastics immediately caught my eye.  Zass is the creative collaboration of mother-daughter design duo, Zulay and Stephanie Smith. Based in Raleigh, North Carolina,  Zass Designs uses recycled printed materials and PET plastic bottles to create unique contemporary jewelry pieces.

Zulay and Stephanie Smith

Zass Designs

This mother daughter design duo, Zulay and Stephanie Smith have been making jewelry as a hobby for years,  but began doing so professionally just a few years ago.  In a stroke of genius while cleaning out their studio ( they are both graphic designers) one day, they realized that the pile of old prints they were feeling guilty about throwing away could make an excellent raw material for jewelry. Zulay, the Mom of the mother daughter duo, says ” we found ourselves thinking on how we could recycle (well actually upcycle) these printed material into something unique, wearable and lasting; something that one would cherish for many years to come, and of course keep it from our landfills.” It all started with a few simple pieces made as gifts for family and friends, but once they found themselves fulfilling countless requests on every birthday and holiday they decided to create Zass Designs.

Now, they have developed a collection made entirely of recycled materials. Their prints are all salvaged, including everything from old maps, concert tickets and calenders to junk mail cards and paper samples from distributors.  Their plastics are virtually all from recycled bottles, which they collect from neighbors and local restaurants. They’ll even offer client’s discounts in exchange for fun colored plastic bottles.

The rich histories of their pieces’ past lives as newspapers, calenders and soda bottles, adds a whole new level of individuality to Zass’s hand crafted jewelry.

In talking to them it was clear to me that their art was driven by their principles. Again Zulay says that “from the beginning, we’ve been driven to do something worthwhile professionally and creatively, but above all, to do something that inspires us personally following the eco-design fundamental principles: reduce, reuse, recycle.”

They have even taken their recycled art one step further by creating their own recycled gift and storage bags to reduce packing waste. Using pages from a local fashion magazine called Skirt they make gift bags for customers to take home purchases. They also use recycled felt to make  “jewelry wraps,”  as carrying cases for their pieces. Holding three to four pieces of jewelry, these are  perfect for travel.

Their pieces are available in a number of local Raleigh- Durham shops including: The Collector’s Gallery, Raleigh City Museum, Limelight Boutique and Adore Boutique. You can also catch their stuff on their etsy page.  Just in time for the holiday’s you can find your favorite ladies a gift you know they’ll love and you can feel good about.

“We made a promise to ourselves to only create items that the customer can “re-use” or “recycle”, this way they walk away not only with a beautiful handmade original piece of jewelry and/or accessory, but they also walk away with knowledge and a sense of responsibility to our environment and our world.”

– Zulay and Stephanie Smith of Zass Designs

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REMEDY

The supplies salvaged by REMEDY are ones prepared for procedures but never used

After mentioning  my blog about waste to a friendly stranger I met in a café the other day, he told me about a super cool project started at the Yale medical center, that turns medical garbage into gold for healthcare programs in the developing world. REMEDY,  or Recovered Medical Equipment for the Developing World was founded in 1991 by William H. Rosenblatt, MD, a professor of Anesthesiology at Yale University School of Medicine.  The program collects exposed but unused surgical supplies and donates them to healthcare facilities in third world countries. Collected items include gloves, sutures, drapes and gowns which are prepared for procedures but never used. Though these items have had no contact with the patient, they are deemed “un-sterile”  and must be thrown-out. One of the many unfortunate symptoms of a healthcare system afflicted by hyper-litigiousness, this draconian approach to waste results in more than $200,000,000 worth of still useful medical supplies discarded by American hospitals each year.   To add insult to injury, these are often products which are virtually impossible to get in developing world. REMEDY’s ultimate purpose is to elminate this needless disparity.

The immense amount of waste associated with healthcare has a significant impact on our environment

Dr. Rosenblatt first devised the organization after becoming acutely aware of the feast and famine of medical supplies in the US  and the Third World while making a series of  medical mission trips to various Latin American hospitals. Rosenblatt sought to achieve the dual goals of  providing international medical relief while reducing solid medical waste from US hospitals.

Since 1991, REMEDY’s pilot project at the Yale-New Haven Hospital has been collecting waste and delivering it to partner organizations across the globe. As of 2006, they had salvaged and donated more than 50 tons of medical supplies, saving the hospital $2,530 in incineration cost annually. Providing a host of opportunities for cost and environmental efficacy, the project also became a case study for Rosenblatt and his collaborator Dr. David Silverman to illustrate the efficacy, cost-effectiveness, environmental ramifications, and usefulness of supplies recovered through the REMEDY program.  Once they began to publish their findings, hospitals across the country started inquiring about how they could follow REMEDY’s lead.

At this point, according to Dr. Rosenblatt, “we changed our focus from simply being a collection agency to becoming a teaching agency.” To share their model, REMEDY created a  free, comprehensive teaching packet detailing how to start a standardized recovery program based on the REMEDY model at YNHH. Today, more than 600 hospitals have created satelite projects to donate supplies.

Some of the top REMEDY inspired programs include:

Remedy is managed entirely by an all volunteer staff and a part-time administrator. Pictured are Dr. Rosenblatt and Dr. Bernstein with the rest of the Remedy team

• Duke Recovers
• MEDWorld
• Supplies Overseas (SOS)
• Medical Bridges
• MedShare International
• Globus Relief

About 10 years ago, Rosenblatt also established the REMEDY program Med-Eq, an online service that connects donors of medical equipment and supplies with registered non-profits and charities.

Like all other non-profits, REMEDY depends on the support of those who support it’s principles. The REMEDY team has number of fundraisers each year including Run-athons, Bike-athons, and even pie contests and kettlebell swings, to support it’s program. Check out their support us page to see how you can contribute to this awesome cause.

Art for All

Friday evening after just a short autumn air bike ride from my NE capitol hill row house, I arrived at the launch party for the new Center For Green Urbanism. The eco-friendly new center is envisioned by its founders as an incubator for local entrepreneurship. The converted home on Benning Road offers affordable office space, meeting rooms and internet, all in an environmentally conscious, community oriented and art laden atmosphere. The goal of the center is to make the capital resources necessary to turn passion and a bright idea into a sustainable business available to the people of  Ward 7. The opening featured art inspired by and made from recycled materials, thus peaking the interests of this blogger. The art exhibit entitled, ReCREATE, showcased pieces by 20 artist from around the country.

 

The shape of Ideas by Megan Chava Evans

 

 

The Shape of Ideas by Megan Chava Evans

 

The center’s brain child Zandra Chestnut put out the call for art in august and by september when the art was jured they chose between hundreds of artist’s across the country. The collection included a wide selection of mediums, from painting and collage to tapistry and sculpture.My personal favorite was a collection by local artist Megan Chava Evans of hanging paper ornatments made from the folded and formed pages of old books cleverly named the shape of an idea.

Talking to Zandra about her choice to highlight recylced art in the exhibit, she said that one of these thigns she found most exciting was the fascination she saw amongst the art’s onlookers.  “People get so excited to see what can be done with a bunch of old lighters.” she said refering to a piece by Chuck Baxter.

 

Circle of Lighters by Chuck Baxter

 

Just as the goal of the center overall, the inclusion of art is meant to make opportunities for success more accessible. Zandra wanted to create an alternative space for artists to show their work, “rather than waiting in lines to be seen in the galleries in Georgetown.” The center will continue to help local artists get their name out there, by showcasing new artists each month.

Without a doubt there was no better theme for the opening exhibit than recycled art. Not, only does it align with the principles of the center as a green business. But, it feeds perfectly into the goals of expanding access of  local artists to art markets. Recycled art can act as a keystone in bridging local artists into the exclusive mainstream art scene. First off, It’s a super  affordable medium to work with, I mean what could be cheaper than garbage?? And as Zandra and I witnessed first hand art this event, it  can speak to a huge cross section of people. It is in deed fascnating to see how much beauty and value can be created out of something once tossed aside as worthless. What’s more the vast plethora of shit we throw away makes for a infinite array of possible creative forms, making it all the more likely for everyone to find a piece that speaks to them.

If you like the peices you see, head to the Center for Green Urbanism and check out the exhibit, it will be around till Nov. 13th. For more info on the event and the center follow their blog, The Center for Green Urbanism, also here at wordpress.

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Refuse Reinvented

Thinking creatively about waste