Conscious Choice Seattle: EM’s look at local economies and sustainable biz

Photo by Hipposchemes

Capital Hill’s Hipposchemes (www.hipposchemes.net) announces its new fall line of reconstructed sweaters, pants, jackets and accessories. Hipposchemes creates new clothing from donated apparel to create a fresh look. Helga Hizer and Javar Mahweila opened their doors in 2004 to provide a place for recycled, redesigned products. They make one-of-a-kind clothing for men and women—hats and bags and feature other hand made jewelry and visual arts. They hand-make the products right in the store and offer custom-designed work too. Hizer explains, “Today, no one has any idea where their products come from. People like coming here because they can see them being made, and we give people’s old clothes a chance for a unique reincarnation.”

October 2005 | Green Lines

EM’s look at local economies and sustainable biz

This Month: Computers for Iraqi schools, recycled art, French fry fuel at UW, reincarnated sweaters and pants

By Heather Nordell

Technology nonprofit InterConnection sent 367 refurbished computers to Iraqi schools this summer—one of its many global shipments of salvaged and rebuilt computers. Founded by Charles Brennick in 1999, the organization has now supplied more than 3,000 renovated computers, donated 120 Web sites and provided Internet hosting and e-mail services to local and international nonprofits and NGOs. Brennick founded the organization to make Internet technology accessible to developing countries and underserved communities, plus, no small thing, to provide a way to reuse the vast amounts of discarded hardware. The organization provides job-skills training to volunteers who learn how to build and fix computers. Volunteers who donate 25 hours to rebuilding computers also get a free computer. To donate or recycle your computer, volunteer or support Interconnection, go to
www.interconnection.org.

Ballard’s salvaged building materials store, The RE Store (www.re-store.org), hosted its fourth annual Recycled Art Show on Sept. 8. The art was made from anything reused, recycled, salvaged, scrounged, found or otherwise saved from landfills, dumpsters, scrap yards, free bins, roadsides, gutters, alleys, garages, sheds or grandpa’s old barn. The unique artworks included pieces using cans, windows, glass, metals, paper, reconstructed maps, magazines and even plastic army men melded together forming a human bust titled “Disposable Heroes” by Evan Blackwell. The show included a fun and racy burlesque performance. The RE Store teamed up with Arts Ballard and Art’fisk to promote local arts. RE Store outreach manager Marty Brennan says, “The recycled art show is a natural extension and expression of what we are.”

Student organization French Fry Fuel FOols returns to the UW campus for fall classes and continues its mission to clean up the world through reusing waste food grease. This group of UW students started a biodiesel operation in 2004, which collects and converts UW and restaurant oils into biodiesel fuel. They provide a cleaner environment by reusing waste to make a cleaner source of fuel. In addition to making biodiesel, the student group provides public education so others can learn about the environmental and social benefits of biodiesel, plus, how to make it. Chief Executive FOol, Max Silver, was exited to announce a new collaborative project that will build an advanced biodiesel processor. The site of the new processor will become home to the FOols and produce commercial grade biodiesel for boats. For more information about biodiesel, go to www.nwbiodiesel.org.

Heather Nordell is a regular contributor to Evergreen Monthly.

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