Being green and talking trash on Auburn's campus

Students take a look at the Talk Trash exhibits in front of the Wallace Center at Auburn University Friday. The exhibits were built in 24 hours by industrial design and graphic design students from recycled materials.

By: Amy Weaver | Opelika Auburn News
Published: March 29, 2008

The concept of trash talking sounded different on the Auburn University campus Friday.

Instead of verbal insults, students in industrial design and graphic design used trash -- or more accurately, recyclable materials -- to create an abstract sculpture that conveys a “shocking fact” about recycling, sustainability and/or environmental issues.

Auburn’s annual Designing Green event has always been a true test of creativity , and senior Coral Blanche said this year’s project, “Talk Trash,” is no different. This is the first year graphic design has

participated in the annual contest, but it remains a challenge for the industrial design students to think about sustainability in their design and for the graphic design students to think 3-dimensionally.

Plus, they have to work together, she said.

“If nothing else, they are learning how interdisciplinary departments work together,” said Jerrod Windham, an assistant professor of industrial design.

Senior Peter Azzouni and his teammates were given one fact Thursday morning: Americans will dispose of 22 billion plastic bottles this year. An hour later, they had to find their supplies in a pile of recyclables dumped on the Wallace Center lawn and get to work. Each team’s creation was to be judged Friday afternoon on the same lawn.

Azzouni, an industrial design major, said the task was hard at first, but once the creative juices started to flow between both majors, the collective idea “worked better than we thought it would.”

Junior Preston Lett said he was surprised to learn how versatile plastic bottles and newspapers are to work with.

“It’s all right there,” he said. “Everything you think you need.”You just put it together.”

They created a pair of jeans taking a step into a sea of plastic bottles, depicting the footprint Americans are leaving on the planet, and won first place for most effective use of communication. Awards were also given for innovative use of materials and most fun.

Recyclable materials could be supplemented with additional materials, but 85 percent had to be recyclable.

“As designers, we can make products more sustainable,” Blanche said.

But as a society, we can do so much more than just recycle cans, she said, like using rechargeable batteries, driving less and slower and not drinking bottled water.

“It’s a lot bigger than you think,” said Azzouni of America’s ecological footprint, “But it’s not hard to reduce it.”