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Do IT this week: Layering
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 06:10 p.m. EST, Mar 02, 2009
Artists and art educators in the Akron area got free supplies — thanks to a little-known Summit County grass-roots group.
ZeroLandfill, a 4-year-old organization, is distributing 4 tons of samples from local architectural and interior design firms, said organizer Michael Dungan of Green.
The samples include carpet tiles, paint decks, laminate chips, upholstery swatches, vinyl and rubber flooring samples, brick-tile-stone samples, wall-covering books, glass and metal samples and three-ring binders.
His Akron pilot project has offered three distributions: Feb. 14, 21 and 28. More than 4,200 pounds were distributed the first two days from a downtown Akron warehouse off North High Street — with another 4,000 pounds made available Saturday.
''Materials that one industry may take for granted hold high value for other audiences,'' Dungan said. ''ZeroLandfill demonstrates beneficial reuse as a practice that enriches our community.''
By finding a way to reuse the materials, the program keeps them out of landfills and provides a new, free source for artists and educators, all of whom are grateful for the boost and appreciative of the diversity of the materials, he said.
''It's been a big plus,'' said Akron artist and educator Todd V., who operates the City Art on High gallery. ''Where else are you going to get free materials?
The program offers some unusual materials and forces artists to ''flex their creative muscles a little bit . . . and that's good,'' he said.
He said he enjoys getting the Formica chips for making mosaics. There also are numerous samples available for fabric artists.
Providing the materials is easy and the volume of materials is never-ending, said design architect Scott Sturm of Braun & Steidl Architects Inc.
Materials constantly are changing, evolving and being improved. ''There's just so much and it's ongoing,'' Sturm said. ''The volume is a constant.''
Too often, architects and interior designers are worried about their projects and don't realize that out-of-date and worn-out samples can be reused, said Dungan, whose organization is active in Cleveland, Boston, Cincinnati and Akron.
He said he would like to see the Akron program continue in 2009.
The program might be extended into five new cities this year: Toledo, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis and Louisville, Ky., he said.
Dungan calls what he is doing ''upcycling.''
''We knew we were onto something, although we didn't realize how powerful it was,'' he said.
The materials typically are collected by architectural and interior design firms in boxes. Volunteers from ZeroLandfill collect the samples and take them to the warehouse for sorting.
Since 2006, ZeroLandfill has collected and distributed 160,000 pounds of materials, said Dungan, 46, who works for a consulting firm and has 10 years' experience in the interior design business.
It handled 20,000 pounds on one day in 2006 in the first Cleveland collection, and that grew to 100,000 pounds in the combined 2007 and 2008 collections, he said.
Less than 5 percent of the materials collected get dumped in landfills, he said.
He is setting up a new venture: BeeDance Inc., an online company that will match people with needs and materials that no longer are needed. He said he hopes to have the company operating by early summer.
For more information, go to http://www.zerolandfill.net.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
Artists and art educators in the Akron area got free supplies — thanks to a little-known Summit County grass-roots group.
ZeroLandfill, a 4-year-old organization, is distributing 4 tons of samples from local architectural and interior design firms, said organizer Michael Dungan of Green.
The samples include carpet tiles, paint decks, laminate chips, upholstery swatches, vinyl and rubber flooring samples, brick-tile-stone samples, wall-covering books, glass and metal samples and three-ring binders.
His Akron pilot project has offered three distributions: Feb. 14, 21 and 28. More than 4,200 pounds were distributed the first two days from a downtown Akron warehouse off North High Street — with another 4,000 pounds made available Saturday.
''Materials that one industry may take for granted hold high value for other audiences,'' Dungan said. ''ZeroLandfill demonstrates beneficial reuse as a practice that enriches our community.''
By finding a way to reuse the materials, the program keeps them out of landfills and provides a new, free source for artists and educators, all of whom are grateful for the boost and appreciative of the diversity of the materials, he said.
''It's been a big plus,'' said Akron artist and educator Todd V., who operates the City Art on High gallery. ''Where else are you going to get free materials?
The program offers some unusual materials and forces artists to ''flex their creative muscles a little bit . . . and that's good,'' he said.
He said he enjoys getting the Formica chips for making mosaics. There also are numerous samples available for fabric artists.
Providing the materials is easy and the volume of materials is never-ending, said design architect Scott Sturm of Braun & Steidl Architects Inc.
Materials constantly are changing, evolving and being improved. ''There's just so much and it's ongoing,'' Sturm said. ''The volume is a constant.''
Too often, architects and interior designers are worried about their projects and don't realize that out-of-date and worn-out samples can be reused, said Dungan, whose organization is active in Cleveland, Boston, Cincinnati and Akron.
He said he would like to see the Akron program continue in 2009.
The program might be extended into five new cities this year: Toledo, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis and Louisville, Ky., he said.
Dungan calls what he is doing ''upcycling.''
''We knew we were onto something, although we didn't realize how powerful it was,'' he said.
The materials typically are collected by architectural and interior design firms in boxes. Volunteers from ZeroLandfill collect the samples and take them to the warehouse for sorting.
Since 2006, ZeroLandfill has collected and distributed 160,000 pounds of materials, said Dungan, 46, who works for a consulting firm and has 10 years' experience in the interior design business.
It handled 20,000 pounds on one day in 2006 in the first Cleveland collection, and that grew to 100,000 pounds in the combined 2007 and 2008 collections, he said.
Less than 5 percent of the materials collected get dumped in landfills, he said.
He is setting up a new venture: BeeDance Inc., an online company that will match people with needs and materials that no longer are needed. He said he hopes to have the company operating by early summer.
For more information, go to http://www.zerolandfill.net.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
Comments
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Akron, Oh
Posted 09:58 AM, 03/03/2009
A huge thumbs up to ZeroLandfill! What an awesome program.
Akron, OH
Posted 10:46 AM, 03/03/2009
With more intiative such as this, we wouldn't need to be dumping multiple millions of tax dollars into the NEA.
Cuyahoga Falls, Oh
Posted 11:23 AM, 03/03/2009
this is a wonderful program, and such a benefit to the artists in the area!
thank you to to Mr Dungan
It is a shame that ToddV is trying to use it to gain free publicity.
Educator Todd???? now that’s a stretching things a bit, unless you are teaching artists how to pay outrageous commissions to hang their art in poorly run galleries run by ego frenzied curators.
it always troubles me that once something nice happenes to the artist's community in akron the vultures always seem to be waiting in the wings to get their name in the paper.
Akron, OH
Posted 12:40 PM, 03/03/2009
So we are not actually reducing the landfill, just delaying it. In time all the stuff will still end up there. Even if it's turned into "art", it will eventually get thrown away.
Akron, Oh
Posted 01:41 PM, 03/03/2009
I encourage MACTAC to donate to this organization. They have Tons of misprinted "sticky" paper of all kinds of cool colors that might otherwise be thrown away. Only a few of us, that work with children, know about MacTac materials. ZeroLandfill, give them a call. This would be great for daycares & preschools too!
