Garbage Moguls! Airing this Saturday!

Hi there friends of RePlayGround! If you're friends of us, chances are you're friends of TerraCycle, too! I'm excited to announce that TerraCycle's trashy reality show, Garbage Moguls, is airing this Saturday. And it's not just one episode. It's four trash-packed episodes airing in a eco-marathon. You can catch me in the shows along with the rest of the TerraCycle crew.

Tune in to the National Geographic Network at 7pm EST and rewatch the pilot kite-flying episode. From 8pm - 10pm you can watch three all-new episodes. What garbage will we attack? That's why you need to tune in. You never know what kind of trash turns up at TerraCycle.

woo hoo garbage moguls!

NYC Expands Recycling - and we've got an even better idea

Good news for us New Yorkers - speaker Christine Quinn has just announced a major expansion of the city recycling program. This means more types of plastics, e-waste, and textiles get recycled, and there will be more public recycling bins all over the city.

Great news - but why not go one step further and try to keep stuff out of the recycling stream in the first place? Recycling is awesome, and definitely better than sending material to landfills. But it still involves a lot of waste and energy spent. After all, the trucks that come to pick up your bags of plastic jugs and aluminum cans sure use a lot of fossil fuel, and then everything needs to be crushed or melted down in big factories before it becomes reusable raw material - not a simple process! - so we think that upcycling your waste, re-making it into something useful before it ever hits the trash can or recycling bin, is the best solution of all.

And we have plenty of suggestions on how to do it. Plant your herb garden in those old yogurt cups. Save your soda tabs for a stylish belt. Weave thick cardboard or treated paper into nifty placemats or coasters. Or check out our projects index for more ideas, and happy upcycling!

Etsy Recyclers Guild

A fellow design junkie and friend, Erin Stevens, turned me on to the Etsy Recyclers Guild which is "A GLOBAL community of eco-artists, crafters, and vintage sellers who have united in the name of green."

We love Etsy, we love recycling, and we love supporting communities of eco-artists. Stop on by for a visit and support your fellow trash lovers. There's even a shop that puts members' upcycled goods all in one convenient shopping spot.

Be sure to check out Erin's "trashy" couture site like this necktie camisole. I own a similar one and get compliments every time I wear it.

Satisfy your NYC Maker Faire craving this weekend!

Hey there New York City area people! Are you drooling in crafty anticipation for this September's first ever NYC Maker Faire?

You can get a taste of it this weekend at the NY Hall of Science. Think of it as an appetizer to Maker Faire's do-it-yourself projects. RePlayGround will be crafting it up once again this Saturday and Sunday from noon - 5pm. Saturday will be magazine stationery and Sunday we'll be making food wrapper wallets and collapsible dishes. Plus we'll have even more upcycled projects up our vintage sleeves. All projects are free with museum admission so stop on down and craft it on up!

MAKE it to Detroit this weekend!

RePlayGround is coming home! RePlayGround started out in Michigan and we're pleased to be a part of Maker Faire Detroit this weekend. If you're in the Detroit area, you don't want to miss this event showing off Motor City's mad making stuff skills.

We'll be showing people how to make wallets and pencil cases out of TerraCycle's upcycled food wrappers. It will be loaded with lots of craftastic fun!

Reader DIY "favor"ite project

Jocelyn, a RePlay blog reader shared her own image from this Wine Cork Keychain project we did for CraftZine last year.

Here's what she said
"I've been waiting to get started on this project since it was posted on the blog. We're having my daughter's Bat Mitzvah at a winery in October, so this was the perfect favor (for the adults, anyway). We've made a bunch, so I thought I would share the picture with you. Hope you enjoy seeing your clever idea come to fruition. We're delighted with how cute (and green) they are. It's also free advertising for the winery, which is great for them.

Thanks for such an original project. Definitely a first for a Bat Mitzvah favor, I'm sure!

Jocelyn (and Amanda, the Bat Mitzvah girl)"

I just love seeing it when DIY recycling goodness makes it into hands of the talented and crafty. Just look how easy do-it-yourselfing is! Happy Bat Mitzvah, Amanda!

The NY Hall of Science will Make your weekend!

If you’re in the NYC area this weekend and looking for something fun and crafty to get your hands on, stop on by the NY Hall of Science.

In preparation for the Maker Faire this fall, the NY Hall of Science is loading up their weekends with extra DIY opportunities around the Musuem.
RePlayGround will be on-site this weekend, July 17-18 and on August 7-8 from 12 AM to 5 PM showing everyone how to ReMake items into new. You can also catch us at the granddaddy of all Maker Faires at the first ever held in New York on September 25-26. We wouldn’t even dream of missing that one. And you shouldn’t either if you’re in the area.

This weekend we’ll be showing off all of our Crafty favorites. Saturday is cereal boxes galore with cereal box pencil cases and wallets, Sunday will be food wrapper focused with collapsible dishes, wallets, and more.

Stop on by and RePlay with us. All of the projects are free with general admission to the museum. Just bring your crafty self and join us for some good ole fashioned ReMake fun!