More than just your ordinary trash heap

Can a picture of a trash be considered art? Depends on who you ask.

Last Friday Fox Leadership hosted "Sustainable by Design," an environmental art gallery that focused on raising awareness of recycling, global warming and ecological architecture.

The event coincides with RecycleMania, a 10-week campus-wide initiative to reduce waste. "Sustainable by Design" included art mediums ranging from nylon carpeting to origami - all with the purpose of raising environmental awareness.

College junior Annie Lee helped to organize the gallery as a program assistant for Fox Leadership. "We teamed up with the Penn Environmental Group to plan this. I'm really excited by how it turned out." The theme of sustainability even extended to the locally grown refreshments provided.

College junior Ryan Benjamin, an Urban Studies major, exhibited several photographs he took while studying abroad in Barcelona this fall. "I'm sure the locals thought I was crazy taking pictures of trash cans," he said.

One of his photographs from Lisbon, Portugal displays a trash bin with separate receptacles for trash, paper, glass and packaging. As Benjamin observed, "I think European cities have a greater emphasis on sustainability than most American cities."

A photo he took in Barcelona shows portable trash cans made out of recyclable cardboard. "They used these for La Diada, the Catalan Independence Day" to cut down on the littering that usually happens at public events, Benjamin explained.

The exhibit also included several proposals for landscape designs in Philadelphia that would enhance ecological awareness in the community.

Kathy Lent, a graduate student in Architecture, appreciated these literally sustainable designs. "One of my professors is giving a lecture here . about sustainable architecture, so he encouraged us to come check out this event."

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