Trashy Artist

Senior Capstone Project 2022-2023

In 10th grade, I started an after school program called Trashy Artist as a National Honors Society project. Once a week, I visited the middle school and taught them creative ways to reduce, reuse, recycle, and upcycle trash into treasure. I also showed them videos and articles to raise their awareness of environmental issues, and we collaborated to find innovative ways to combat these issues.

This program was only supposed to last 5 weeks, but ended up lasting 3 years through the rest of my high school career. Once I was in college, my mom and I started the non-profit Reset 360° Teen Center where we teach teens life skills, business skills, and leadership skills so they can be successful adults after graduation. At Reset 360° we run several programs, one of which being Trashy Artist to this day. The program has been such a success fueling teens’ passion for our environment that I decided to create an interactive workbook as my senior capstone project to share with others.

Problem Statement

Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers that will soon become the next generation of adult consumers aren’t responsible with their waste because they aren’t thoroughly educated about waste management alternatives or remediation in school.

Project Significance

Americans produce the most waste per capita, amounting 12% of waste worldwide. We try to combat overcon- sumption with recycling and more sustainable product options, but recycling alone will never be enough and sustainable products are statistically more expensive. There needs to be a new intervention to challenge us all to live more sustainably in our daily lives.

Design Goals

-Build a deeper understanding of current envirnmental issues. -Encourage resourseful and creative thinking to promote sustainable lifestyles.
-Apply sustainable concepts in experimental and accessible ways. -Implement learned strategies to break the overconsumption cycle to decrease negative personal impact long-term. -Utilize affordable and found materials to reduce the financial boundary on sustainable practices.