Art & Ecology:
Photoessays: Art and the Earth
Earthly Matters
Recycling in the Global Marketplace
by Suzanne Seriff, Ph.D.
"In our world of material wealth, where so many broken items are thrown away, rather than mended...we forget that most of the world fixes everything and discards nothing."
- Stephen J. Gould, "From Tires to Sandals"
"It is our duty to collect little things and try to make something out of them to have something to eat--that is what we do, that is se debrouiller ( to manage, to make do). That is how it works."
- Assane Faye, recycling artisan, Dakar, Senegal
For many people throughout the world, making things from discarded material is a matter of necessity, not choice. Trash, to them, is a relative term. With ingenuity and resourcefulness, these recyclers transform something that is worthless to one sector of society--such as a burned-out electric light bulb-- into something of value--a kerosene lantern--for immediate use.
Much of this recycling is utilitarian. Recycled cooking utensils, tools, furniture, and other functional objects fill local markets where they are bought and sold. This is the case in the centuries-old city of Marrakech, Morocco, where artisans ingeniously transform mounds of discarded automobile tires into sturdy sandals, fluidly sculpted water jugs, or animal gear, for their local clientele. Although their "raw materials" are quintessentially modern, the finished products of these recycling entrepreneurs often bear the imprint of age-old style, form, and tradition.
In the port city of Dakar, Senegal, a developing economy has created a market for hundreds of individuals who "make do" by finding new uses for broken, mis-printed, or discarded metal products. An entire block of market stalls outside the Sandagga Market buzzes with the activity of local artisans making and selling handmade briefcases, trunks, boxes, and toys cut from scavenged tin cans or misprinted metal sheeting from a local canning factory. Assane Faye is one such recycling entrepreneur who, like all successful businessmen, is acutely aware of the aesthetic choices and demands of his varied clientele. While his tin can suitcases were originally made strictly for local use, the chic irony of recycling (transforming popular brand cans into lawyer's briefcases, for example) has attracted new clients among resident expatriates and foreign tourists. His workshop, inherited from his father, is filled with the most recent products of his creative labor, including a constantly changing line of handmade briefcases, and a collection of toy boats and airplanes.
This particular briefcase -- made by one of the Senegalese recyclers from a metal sign advertising the packaged tin "Nescafé" product-- creates a visual pun on the notion of dimensionality itself: a flat two-dimensional icon of a three dimensional round container is transformed back into a third dimension as a rectangular briefcase.
Previous Page | Next page 
© 2006 greenmuseum.org