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Design professionals are invited to salvage discarded items and turn them into works of art for a Trash to Treasure competition to be held at the Environ- Design7 conference, April 30 to May 2 at the Hilton, Washington.

Artwork can be of any shape or size and will be displayed the first day of EnvironDesign7. A team of jurors will select the most imaginative entries. Selected pieces will be photographed and acknowledged in the June 2003 issue of IS magazine, a publication for the art and design community and one of the show’s producers.

A silent auction of these pieces will be held during EnvironDesign with proceeds going to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to help "Save the Bay."

Winning bids and juror’s choices will be announced at the May 1 evening reception.

An export firm abandoned 35 steel drums, or 2,000 gallons of latex paint at a Portland, Ore., warehouse. At one time, the paint would have been thrown away at considerable cost. Today, the paint is in Toppenish, Wash., awaiting its role in an ongoing graffiti eradication program.

For Mark Gentemann and Jay Wilson of Portland’s MG Warehouse, it seemed like a natural thing to do. "We were left with drums of gray latex paint that was still serviceable," Gentemann says. "Rather than let it go to waste or pay nearly $9,000 in disposal costs, we wanted to put it to good use."

Wilson turned to an industrial materials exchange service (IMEX). He found a volunteer team in Toppenish doing graffiti removal and was able to donate the paint there at no charge.

IMEX is a major Northwest exchange site for Northwest Materialsmart, a program designed to help Oregon businesses exchange surplus materials to reduce waste. The Internet site www.nwmaterialsmart.org is the starting point for exchanges.

David Allaway, a waste prevention specialist at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), manages the program, which was developed by a coalition of public and private organizations led by DEQ and Metro.

An independent non-profit group called the BEST Team (Beautify, Educate and Support Toppenish) organizes the graffiti eradication program in cooperation with the City of Toppenish.

"Reusing material is even better than recycling it and definitely better than sending it to the landfill," Alloway says. "It is part of our effort to improve the state’s quality of life by both supporting business and promoting the sustainable use of resources."

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Southwest Assistant Regional Director Joseph Chnupa has presented $1,000 to Carnegie Mellon University for a second place finish in the "Rush to Recycle Challenge."

"The Rush to Recycling Challenge targeted our next generation of Pennsylvanians to make recycling a way of life," Chnupa said during the award ceremony.

The challenge pitted colleges and universities across the Commonwealth against one another to see which school could increase its recycling percentage the most.

The challenge’s overall goals were to encourage participation among colleges and universities that were not actively involved in recycling, while encouraging schools with established programs to further expand their efforts.

"At Carnegie Mellon we hope to make recycling a way of life among college students and have it transfer over into their adult lives," Barbara Kviz, campus Rush to Recycling coordinator, said. "The Rush initiative has assisted several colleges and universities in jump started their recycling initiatives. Even though the recycling contest is over, we need to keep improving our recycling efforts for Carnegie Mellon to be a leader in Green Practices."

Prize money is being used at each winning campus to further expand recycling.

Harrisburg Area Community College received an honorable mention for its computer and electronics "eCycling" initiative.