I Can Haz Recycled Can Art?

4 by LiveOAK Staff on October 20, 2008

You CAN recycle your old CANS or you CAN upcycle them into art...

After reading this article on SmartPlanet about these cool recycled Coke can sculptures (pictured above and below) I went looking for more cool can art. Some of the best ones I found were from an organization called Canstruction, that holds contests for the best can sculptures. They actually use full cans of food because after the contest the cans are donated to soup kitchens and emergency recovery programs, but the canstruction concept can easily be replicated by using recycled cans.

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So how is making sculptures from recycled cans green? Isn't it kind of a waste? Maybe, depends on how you look at it. A huge factor in being Green is consuming less and efficiently using our resources, when probably doesn't include using scrap metal to make a giant Snoopy sculpture... but we do not have to be philistines to be green.

Can art is not the most efficient use of our time or resources but it can be an enriching endeavor, plus the resulting art is a striking and visual conversation piece that can help contribute to the conversation about sustainability and hopefully inspire some people to choose different paths for their trash, instead of the landfill.

Check out the next page for a Gallery of cool can art...

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http://www.journeytobecoming.blogspot.com The Seeker

Pretty cool!
http://ecomonkey.blogspot.com/ Racheblue

Hi guys,
Interesting article. These works of art are aesthetically and resourcefully great.
I can’t help wondering however if they are permanent pieces or if some of the components will still end up having to be recycled or horrifically sent to landfill.
It would be awesome if these works actively encouraged viewers to re-think our consumer habits and stop buying all these canned products (a huge proportion of which are neither nutritional or healthy) in the first place.
I’m not convinced that they promote green thinking, rather these pieces almost give the impression that it is okay to keep buying canned goods as they can be reused by artists – in a way, continued consumerism funding the arts!! This is not green!
Green would be to cut consumerism and therefore have less products to recycle or upcycle.
Do you agree?
Rache

Leslie

In Lansing, after the Can Art displays are dismantled, the cans are being donated to the local food bank.

aerin

hey rache,

i totally agree with you and just posted something on the upcycling portal that i’m working on about this today. my idea around the movement we might call upcycling is to get people thinking about how they might actually use THEIR OWN WASTE in more useful or productive ways. Art is cool and I’m all about creative expression, but i’m just not sure about how i feel about other people consuming that art (e.g. buying it, which just reinforces the dominant paradigm of consumption). I mean surely these artists did not eat all of that tuna or creamed corn or whatever. i also don’t think that using full cans and then giving them to the hungry is really all that cool either. I’m about encouraging people to think about what they consume and then what they do with what’s leftover. Upcycling is about making stuff more beautiful, useful or practical out of your own waste!