I (heart) post-consumer art...

but, I wish I could say others were open to the idea.

Today I'm doing a little venting. I love to use upcycled materials in my art projects as much as I possibly can. I'm all about decreasing land-fill product, and we recycle religiously in our household. One of my favorite post-consumer items is bottle glass. I'm fascinated by it. I save almost all of ours, and have been known to go through neighborhood recycling bins for more.

Sadly, I have a new project that I'm working on and we don't have any bottles here. Worse still is that Belleville is a little behind the green times and there aren't any neighborhood recycle bins for glass. I don't even know if there's one at the grocery store. Yes, it's very sad.

I thought I would just stop by some of the local bars in our downtown area and see if I could take a few of their empties. No big deal, right?

Apparently asking for empty beer bottles out of the trash is akin to exposing yourself to small children. I have never been treated so poorly. One bartender walked away from me, and when I asked her again she refused to let me see if there were any bottles in the trash. The other bar sold mostly canned beer, but told me that 'the trash already went out'.

Fear not dear Blogosphere, I'm still hunting for those bottles. I know people who know people who drink a lot of beer. One of whom is Mr. Peanutbutter. He'll be very happy to know that I will need him to drink more beer - especially if it's the good stuff.

Still, I'm irked beyond measure over this experience. I'm thinking I will give my project a special name in honor of those-who-can't-think-outside-of-the-box. Something like:

Jelly's Post-Consumer Puppet Candles