Rethink Your Stuff

The holiday season is in full swing; and with the pressures to buy, decorate, give and even reflect, now is the perfect time to peer into the seedy underbelly of consumerism. Join the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center and Sierra Nevada College on Saturday, Dec. 5 at 4 p.m. for an evening filled with opportunity. Opportunity to learn a little more about consumerism through a short film screening, learn how to cut down on trash, how to recycle, learn how to repurpose things that could have been trash into wrapping paper and bows, and view “trashion” creations and art made with postconsumer materials.

The evening begins with a screening of the short “Story of Stuff”, an animated film where author and activist Annie Leonard examines stuff: where it comes from, where it goes and how it affects people and the earth along the way. Make no mistake, this is not your eighth grade science teacher droning on exclaiming, “Reduce! Reuse! Recycle!” Leonard frankly discusses the fact that we can not “run a linear system on a finite planet indefinitely.”

“I had first read about the Story of Stuff in the Huffington Post,” said Rachel Spellman, environmental education and outreach assistant at the college. “I really wanted to organize a screening of the film because it conveys a crucial message — our consumer culture takes a huge toll on the environment, on workers, on our health and happiness. The Story of Stuff conveys this message in a way that is plain and incontrovertible, yet still confident that we can make a change.”

Advertisement

Although this issue is important year round, the timing of the event is intentional. Says Spellman, “I really wanted to screen the film before the holidays because I wanted people to consider that there are better ways to give gifts to loved ones than just buying stuff.”

In addition to the film screening, students from the Truckee High School Envirolution club along with Sierra Nevada College art students will be on hand for a trashion show and a DIY session. Trashion is a term used to describe art, accessories, clothing and home décor made from repurposed items.

“The club began to create trashion outfits last year at about this time,” said Missy Mohler, project director for Sierra Watershed Education Partnerships. “The club began at the beginning of last school year with about five club members. We have several types of trashion shows; sometimes we will join another existing show and other times we put on our own. We now have about 20 trashion outfits that the students have designed and created themselves, and there are at least five outfits that the students are presently working on that will be made out of common school recycling materials to help with upcoming school assemblies that will begin locally in late January. Along with the trashion outfits the Envirolution club students have been working on other creative items, such as wallets and sandwich holders that they create out of milk cartons to demonstrate fun and creative ways to reuse items before throwing them away.”

To finish off the evening, Madonna Dunbar, resource conservationist with the Incline Village General Improvement District, will be on hand to answer any questions about how to cut down on trash and how to recycle.

The screening of The Story of Stuff and Trashion Show is Saturday, Dec. 5, 4-5:30 p.m., free, Assembly Rooms 139 & 141, Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences, 291 Country Club Drive, Incline Village, Nevada (on the campus of Sierra Nevada College).