By Isaiah
At Recycle Art SXM, we take old wood, clean it up, and turn it into art. Recently, I worked with Nascha Kagie, the founder of Recycle Art, to turn old shipping pallets into beautiful planters.
Now you might be wondering why. Take a drive or walk if you dare on Pond Island and see the very large mounds of trash that seem to grow bigger and smellier day by day. You will quickly realize that we need to do more to reduce the number of things being thrown out.
It is time to consider what is known as “The Four Rs” of the environmental movement: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle or Repurpose. It might sound hard or even a bit confusing, but it really is not.
Let’s start with Reduce. Instead of getting plastic shopping bags each time you go to the store; get one bag and carry it with you and use just the one for shopping. Presto! Already dozens fewer plastic bags would be going to the dump.
Next is Reuse. That is pretty easy too. It can be as simple as using a thermos and filling it with drinking water and reusing it each day, instead of buying one or more plastic bottles of water every time you get thirsty. One thermos can replace more than 365 water bottles a year – and you save money, too!
The next one is a bit harder as the island is just starting to Recycle. Used cans and glass get sent off island to be melted down and used to make new cans and glass. An example of recycling is my friends at the Little League’s Player Development. They collect soda can pop tops, which are easily recycled, and ask Rotary Club members to carry bags of the aluminum pop tops north to the States or Canada where they will get recycled into to new aluminum products. The kids at Player Development take the money they get from recycling and use it to help the needy. Wow! That is like two-for-one benefit!
Last is Repurpose – that is what I do. Repurpose means is take something old that you are not using and find some way to take it apart and invent something new out of it. The simplest example is taking an old shirt or an old bedsheet and cut it into cleaning rags.
At Recycle Art SXM, we are making new things out of old pallets. First, we come up with a design of what we want to make. Next, we figure out how much wood we will need.
I am in charge of taking old pallets apart. I clean them and sand them. Next, the wood is cut into proper lengths. Then I paint them. Sometimes, we use stain and then put varnish over it. Then we start putting the planter together. We made two different planters this time. They look pretty nice, even beautiful, once the flowers and green plants start to grow. Once complete, we are ready to start on the next project.
I cannot wait to see what we make next. So try it yourself; it’s easy and helpful to our island and the planet to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle or Repurpose.
