Re-Think Waste – Debris Demolisher

Today I’m sitting in my off the grid 9 foot by 12 foot cabin. A kindling fire generating sauna-like temperatures on this drizzly morning creates a cozy atmosphere. When I’m here, my impact is low. It’s like camping – go to bed when it’s dark and rise with the light. There’s a lot of time for reflection when the world slows down. So I think, or re-think my impact on the world . . .

header-image-homelogoRubbish Renewed is all about re-thinking waste. In fact our tag line is Transforming trash, inspiring community for a sustainable earth. The purpose of trash fashion is to inspire individual and community thinking to shift and more importantly to motivate people to action.

Set an intention. What shift can you make from now on to lessen your impact on the earth?

P1040041-265x185The Rethink Waste Project helps Deschutes County residents and businesses make a difference through reducing, reusing, recycling and composting. Get all the info you need to rethink your waste at rethinkwastep roject.org. At the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show, use our refuse stations to minimize your impact on our planet.

Boneyard Beer – Debris Demolisher

Skull and wrench guy tee templateThe biggest way I lessen my impact on the environment is to focus my purchasing power locally.  This makes my carbon footprint significantly smaller, especially if I ride my bike or walk to buy it.

Lucky for me, Boneyard Beer is walking distance from my house. An afternoon stroll in the hood often ends in a visit to the tasting room, a hole in the wall in a neighborhood industrial building.  A growler only spot, no bottles, no cans, less impact.

Boneyard was started with one goal I mind: Make a great beer!  To overcome the hurdle of making large quantities without large sums of money, they forged the brewery from beer rendering rubbish, a perfect fit with our Rubbish Renewed mission.

Boneyard 1Lucky for Rubbish Renewed they have supported us since our beginning.  Year two, when we ran out of beer, they hurried home to the warehouse and snatched up another keg.  All the proceeds benefited REALMS!  Thanks Boneyard for your generosity.

This year Boneyard is not only supporting us with beer they are entered in the Business Challenge vying for trash fashion glory!  Check out Boneyard Beer at the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show. It’s local, uses repurposed equipment, and it’s delicious.

ReStore – Refuse Remover Sponsor

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2012 Business Challenge
Materials: Leather from de-constructed chair, tire chains.creativity.

Transforming trash, inspiring community for a sustainable earth.  Some might say this tag line is a little grand for a fashion show motivated by trash creativity.  But in fact our goal is to educate, inspire,entertain and take action to help create a more sustainably minded community.

Our first year, when we started planning Rubbish Renewed, we searched for like-minded organizations to collaborate with.  We immediately encountered The Bend Area Habitat for Humanity ReStore. Like us their mission is to engage the community, not just thinking about their impact on the environment, but acting on it.

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Shop. Donate. Volunteer.
ReStore: 740 NE First Street, Bend, Or

If you’ve never been, the ReStore is the ideal place to find treasures of used and surplus home improvement items.  Donate your no longer needed building materials, appliances and home furnishings or discover that special object you were looking for.  All proceeds benefit Bend Area Habitat for Humanity, providing home ownership, home repair & weatherization services for hard-working, low-income local families and individuals.

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2011 Business Challenge
Materials: Blinds, Screening & Plastic Light Covers

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Treasures

With an eye on the environment and the support of an important community cause, ReStore is the go to place for all your home improvement needs.  Check out their offerings including a new “line” of up-cycled merchandise.

Part 2: Remember 2012

Remember year 3 . . .

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  • When Coffee refuse was the base for 3 outfits: 2 students and one of Panambi’s?
  • When one designer made the only pants of the show. 1 of bicycle tubes and 1 of only discarded zippers?
  • When plastic bags were woven into a fine twill fabric that was unrecognizable?
  • When bowling shoes were a stable corset?
  • When our MC walked the runway in an auction item?
  • When there were 2 umbrellas made into garments?
  • When comic book pages were manipulated into beads for an intricate dress?
  • When Pokeman cards transformed into samurai armor?

 Check out the newly posted Gallery, Runway 2012 Adult Designers, featuring the rest of the garments from last year!

Part 1: Remember 2012 . . .

RREFS_2012-6775Remember year 3 . . .

  • When we had 19 inspiring garments designed and made by students?
    • 3 by elementary school students
    • 12 by middle school students
    • 4 by high school students
  • When 2 of the 8 business challenge garments were made by 2 of our talented student designers?
  • When the list of student materials included:
    • Lots of candy wrappers
    • Bubble wrap
    • Race bib numbers
    • Award ribbons
    • Window screen
    • Shower curtain
    • Newspaper
    • Tissue paper
    • & Bags & bags
      • Canvas grocery bags
      • Plastic grocery bags
      • Ramen bags
      • Dog food bags
      • Paella bags
      • Coffee bags
Check out the new Gallery, Runway 2012 Student Designers, featuring all the student garments from last year!

Submission Forms Now Available!

Submissionrr_logo_only13.jpg Forms are now available!  Remember to read the paperwork carefully for criteria, dates, and deadlines.

2013:14 RR Runway Submission Paperwork

2013:14 Student RR Runway Submission Paperwork

2013:14 RR Business Challenge Runway Submission Paperwork

With the announcement of our new date, the response from artists is overwhelmingly positive.  A little extra time and not backed up with the holiday frenzy seems, from a designers point of view, delightful. The extra 6 weeks not only gives more time for artists, and time to solidify and prep the space, it also gives us added time to get the word out!

Have you ever imagined . . .?

Necklaces, zipper pulls, and earrings are the creations made by “Just A Little Charm” out of copper salvaged from the old Bend Bulletin’s roof.

Bend, Oregon is an incredibly cool place to live.  Although the community has grown substantially since I moved here in 2000, it still has a small town feel.  Walking downtown, I always bump into someone I know eager to engage in a meaningful discussion.  People here not only hold “important” conversations, like how to make a difference in their community, they take action.  One approach comes from the willingness, no, eagerness to think about waste, and to do something about it in an ingenious way.  I’ve never met so many creative, capable, motivated and sustainably minded people in a small area (accept maybe Lopez Island – but that’s another story).

So have you ever thought about tiny speakers built into reused ALTOIDS tins?  Sculpted bowls formed from old records?  What about bold jewelry and accessories created from vintage Formica or salvaged roof copper?  These are just a smattering of the imaginative and well-crafted offerings available this year in the Marketplace at the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show on December 6th.  Check out these pieces for a taste of what’s to come.

N. Spekktor specializes in handmade treasures created from household items, journals, and old vinyl records.

Connect the Minty Blaster to the headphone jack on your portable music player and its built-in amplifier will provide a roomful of curiously strong, curiously hip mono sound.

Marketplace spaces are going quickly, so if you are interested, checkout the vendor submission info and grab a space before they’re gone.

Rubbish Renewed at the Bend Fall Festival

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Fall Fest Mainstage Runway

Paris in Allison Murphy’s Kiddy Pool Dress. Photo by Tambi Lane

Amazing day at the Bend Fall Festival!  Kids and adults alike, made pledges for a sustainable earth in tyvek “paper-cut”  snowflakes for the Rubbish Renewed Community Garment. And six garments from the 2011 Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show were showcased on the main stage in a runway snapshot of talented clothing artists.

Olivia creating an ornament for the Community Garment. Photo by Karen Holm

If  you didn’t make it today, or even if you did, come out tomorrow (Sunday) for another day of fashion forward fun.  We’ll be on the main stage at 2:30 and our booth is open from 11-6pm.  Come create an ornament to symbolize your pledge for action and help spread the message on December 6th at the Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show, making a community shift for a better more environmentally conscious world.

Create the 2011 Community Garment

2010 Community Garment, created during First Friday last year.

I love this time of year!  More time with family, friends, holiday parties, and the 2nd annual Rubbish Renewed Eco Fashion Show is upon us; just 10 days away.  Along with the season’s merrymaking, we can not ignore our increased production of holiday trash. The facts about holiday waste are staggering…

  • From Thanksgiving to New Years Day, household waste increases by more than 25%. Added food waste, shopping bags, packaging, wrapping paper, bows and ribbons – it all adds up to an additional 1 million tons a week to our landfills. (EPA and Use Less Stuff)
  • In the U.S., annual trash from gift-wrap and shopping bags totals 4 million tons. (Use Less Stuff)

We believe in the power to educate, change, and inspire and want to invite you to come out on Friday night (December 2nd), during the First Friday festivities, to create the 2011 Community Garment.   To have a hand in this “show-stopping” number, stop by TBD Loft (upstairs at 856 NW Bond Street), and make a pledge to reduce your consumption and waste this season and for a lifetime.