The Portland metro area sends more than 2 million tons of garbage to landfills every year. Surely, some of that trash could be put to better use.
That's the idea behind GLEAN, an environmental arts and education program that pays artists to spend seven months in safety gear, picking art supplies from the waste stream at the Metro Central transfer station in Northwest Portland. The resulting art is displayed in a gallery in September.
The program is accepting applications for the 2013 program until Jan. 31. Check out some of the People's Choice favorites from 2011 and 2012 in the slideshow above. Pretty impressive that this stuff would otherwise have gone to a landfill if the artists hadn't rescued and transformed it.
Have you transformed any of your own garbage into art or something functional? OPB's Public Insight Network is collecting examples of clever ways to reuse waste. Click here to share your story.
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