Okay, you all know how I love glass right? I mean, you’ve seen my Flickr badge down there on the left? I love the way the sun shines through coloured glass (a memento of my childhood – I would sit with the family at mass watching the sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows, seeing the colours reflected onto the walls, people, seeing the way it blended…my fascination with light and colour and glass goes back a long long way) I love to paint glass, often using preloved glass from charity shops, turning an unwanted item into something beautiful to be admired in a sunny window, or with the aid of candlelight.
I love glass beads and glass jewellery, having played with a torch and hot glass whenever my friend with a studio had the time to let me lay. I’ve soldered glass, made it into jewellery, and fused it in my little microwave kiln. I’ve made it into mosaics, cut myself endlessly as I’ve scored and cut it into the shapes I saw in my minds eye. Well recently I’ve been loving glass a whole lot more… my local council finally sent out the glass recycling boxes to each house! Hurray! They do a collection for household rubbish, garden/green rubbish, paper, tins and plastic. We had to go to the nearest recycling centre to recycle glass, which is ridiculous when you consider that it’s probably the easiest to actually recycle! So anyway, they will be doing a doorstop collection from June (why the wait??) but this means that they will be cutting one of the garden cuttings/green bin collections! Still, it’s a start. My council are generally incompetent so this is a step in the right direction! I’m a big fan of recycling and glass can be recycled 100%!
The other reason for me to love glass? Well, I’ve been reading about the hazards of plastic, heat and dioxins – did you get that email chain letter warning against heating food in plastic? Well, I did, and I know it’s a hoax and everything, but you know, I have this auto immune disease, my sister and I are both allergic/sensitive to a lot of environmental chemicals, and you do start to wonder. So I’ve been transferring stuff frozen in plastic into glass Pyrex or into stainless steel before I cook it. I also don’t like the amount of energy required to produce plastic, how unrecyclable it is, and how much environmental damage is done by discarded plastic. Check out what the Independent has to say about the worlds rubbish tip http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/the-worlds-rubbish-dump-a-garbage-tip-that-stretches-from-hawaii-to-japan-778016.html
Also, it has been estimated that one million birds and 100 000 marine mammals die each year in the world's oceans by eating or becoming entangled in plastic rubbish. Many different types of litter can be found on the seashore. This includes rubbish left behind on the beach, thrown or washed overboard from vessels. Ocean currents can bring litter from other countries. Beach litter includes plastic packaging, glass, polystyrene, fishing nets, fishing line, cans, nappies, wood and paper. Many facial scrubs now contain micro particles of plastic which get washed down the sink, into the water system and the sea, and is eaten by fish who think that it’s food. They then starve because their belly is full, but it won’t pass through their system. Read more about the dangers of plastic here http://apusenvironment.com/english/plasticpollution.htm
Check out this cute video!
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You want another reason to love glass? Check out this glass artist, http://www.chihuly.com/glass.html
and this one
Convinced?
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