gum off the streets
This afternoon I went for a walk to grab some lunch and happened across this funny looking post on the sidewalk. It looked like a giant lollypop. After a quick inspection, it turns out it’s a “gum drop-off”. Drop-off makes it sound like it’ll be recycled. Is this a Willy Wonka scheme to make all the chewed gum into fresh new gum?
mmm…freshly chewed gum for free
From envyrobubble.com…
It all began with a casual stroll, shopping downtown. We weren’t trying to change the world, we were just two moms with a weakness for beautiful shoes. But then: splat! We stopped in our tracks only to discover the bottoms of our Manolo Blahniks covered in gooey gum.
That got us thinking. Why were people throwing gum on the sidewalk? And why wasn’t there a place to dispose of it in an environmentally responsible way?
We did our homework and realized a public gum container would have to be designed specifically for gum, so we gave it a unique shape. It had to get attention and raise awareness of responsible gum disposal, so we covered it with a fun, eye-catching spiral design and made it scream bubble gum pink. Then we joined forces with a leading recycler to ensure that the gum collected became something useful: fertilizer.
Interesting. I’d like to know how much gum it takes to make some useful fertilizer. Is there really a business in this? By the time you manufacture, pay materials, installation, pay someone to collect all the gum from the bins, is the recycling company paying enough to make a profit? Or is this a non-profit company simply out to save the sidewalks and the cost of another pair of Manolo Blahniks? Either way, I’m in full support of getting more gum off the streets. I’m just not sure we need specialized bins to do so - a garbage can would suffice. I know where one gum-happy artist will be hanging around now - I like his form of gum recycling much better.
Have you spotted any of these around Toronto? Any other cities? Leave me a comment.
March 1st, 2007 at 2:49 pm
[...] Recycled Chewing Gum By: Ian Barr Met up with my old roommate last night – a hipster-art guy with a flare for socially conscious design. He’s been monitoring the appetite for sustainable furniture in Europe and is anticipating demand for it in Canada over the next few years. It’s a fascinating concept: According to Value Created Resources, producers of this type of furniture must be “responsible for the production cycle from raw material acquisition through to manufacture, end use and final disposal.†In fact, “more than 28 countries, primarily in Europe, have already passed product ‘take-back’ laws that assign the responsibility for the disposal of end-of-life products and packaging to the manufacturer.†You’d have to be living under a rock if you haven’t noticed the abundance of corporate environmental initiatives, particularly in the tech space. Which makes me wonder: how many communicators behind these announcements are packaging up their stories with the bigger picture in mind for media? Here are some initiatives that have caught my eye on a micro and macro level… A quirky grassroots concept, brought to my attention by Blaine Kendall. This Toronto-based initiative called Envyro Bubble was started as a means to get chewing gum off the sidewalks. The biodegradable bag stores more than 1,000 pieces of gum and, when filled, is replaced and sent off for recycling into fertilizer. I predict this little initiative will generate bigger buzz than it already has. Here’s the UK version. By way of my colleague Brendan Hodgson, the Honda Racing F1 Team has launched a major initiative for the 2007 Formula 1 season. Its F1 car will feature a huge image of the earth in place of advertising and sponsor logos to help raise awareness of the environmental issues facing the planet (I wonder how much gas and tires an F1 car goes through in a year and what they’re doing to combat that?) From Clean Break, a Bell Canada initiative, in conjuction with our client HP and CapGemini, to produce a residential energy management system. (Full Article) To counterbalance the client plug, here’s a Q&A about Dell’s ‘effort’ to produce a carbon neutral PC (what do you think about his argument?) Ian Barr is an Account Director with H&K Toronto’s Technology Communications Practice. He’s been with the company for over 5 years. Published 01 March 2007 19:35 by Ian Barr Attachment(s): med_Bubble_Gum.jpg TrackBack URL for this post:http://blogs.hillandknowlton.com/blogs/trackback.aspx?PostID=7479 [...]