Mar

082012

PaGE

6FEATURE

Senior physics-astronomy major Alexe Helmke does not describe herself

as crafty, but when it comes to reusing, she gets creative. Her favorite project for which she reuses materials is her wine bottle candle holders.

“I’ve always thought that wine bottles look very elegant and beautiful on their own. I also am kind of a candle freak. So, at some point, I thought, ‘Why not put the two together?’” said Helmke.

Using wine bottles that she cleans and saves and cheap taper candles that she purchases from stores like Wal-Mart, Helmke creates her inexpensive decorations. First, she must melt the bottom of the candle with a match so that it will form to the neck of the bottle. Then she places the candle in the top of the bottle and lights it.

“After that, it’s pretty simple. You mostly just let the candle do its thing and melt,” Helmke said.

As the candle melts, the wax drips down onto the bottle and creates a patterned result which she enjoys.

Besides wine bottles, Helmke also uses colorful jars and other household containers from time to time. These work best for tea candles or votives, and add to her eclectic candle assortment.

Regarding her reasons for reusing, Helmke does not necessarily credit the Whitman atmosphere, though she does recognize that many other students reuse materials. Rather, she is motivated by personal ethics.

“I guess I try to reuse things just because it makes sense. Why buy something new when something you have will do the job, you know?” she said.

At Whitman, there is a general “green” vibe from the student body,

prompting many students to reuse and recycle due to personal ethical reasons. In February 2011, senior Kaitlin Cloud truly embodied the reusing culture with her decision to make a resolution to refrain from buying any new clothes for one year.

“Buying new clothes was more about ego than anything else, and so recognizing that, I think, really helped me to put it aside and think that this was an adventure,” said Cloud.

Cloud did admit that wearing old clothes for an entire year was difficult, especially when she was home in the big city of Seattle, as she was still “seduced” by the shopping and urban nature of the city. But remembering why she made the resolution and that it was a unique and challenging goal for herself helped her persevere and make it to the end.

It is now a little over a year later, March 2012, and Cloud has completed her resolution and “adventure” successfully.

“Even though I’m done, I’m still very committed to buying secondhand,” said Cloud.

With her resolution originating as a goal to learn to be personally fulfilled without buying clothes, Cloud still kept her ethical goals in mind, which has influenced her life after the resolution.

“Buying secondhand eliminates the resource pressures that I’m putting on the rest of the world, as far as transportation of goods and the ethics of where your clothes are made and supporting the giant textile industry.”

The culture of Whitman College has a reputation for environmental awareness

and being “eco-friendly.” While this may not apply to the entire student body, there are certain individuals who are dedicated to reducing, reusing and recycling. The residents of the Environmental Studies Interest House (referred to as “The Outhouse”) are passionate about reusing within their house and extend this commitment to the campus at large.

All nine of the Outhouse residents engage in reuse projects together, and many of these opportunities appear while the house does their weekly campus recycling rounds. For example,

they often find posters or calendars that they use to decorate their walls, and even tissue paper that some, like sophomore Jenny Gonyer, use to wrap presents.

“Doing recycling gives us the opportunity to reuse before we recycle,” said sophomore Andrew Patel.

Besides the reusable items the residents find in recycling, they have also found ways of reusing their own household materials. Sophomore Jenni Doering’s family reuses plastic storage bags, so when the house began receiving several of these bags at each house dinner, Doering took it upon herself to wash them out and make them available for the residents to reuse.

The environmentalists at the Outhouse have even found ways to reuse perishable

items like tea bags. Several of the residents use a bag two or three times before throwing it away, which conserves money and resources. As an added bonus, it even enhances flavor.

“People don’t realize that some teas, especially white and oolong, actually get more flavor after the third use,” said sophomore Cathryn Klusmeier.

To extend reuse beyond smaller items, sophomore Molly Simonson started a campus-wide “freebox” that sits on the Outhouse porch. Borrowing the idea from the successful box in her Colorado hometown, Simonson set out the cardboard box so that students can pass along possessions they no longer want, such as clothes, books and appliances, to other students who can continue to

use them. She instituted the project at Whitman because she believes the campus is generally in favor of things that increase environmental responsibility, but people often need to be given the opportunity to act.

“It’s easy to get environmental zealots on board . . . but we’re putting these things in place so that the people who normally wouldn’t engage in this kind of reuse can and do,” said Simonson.

Another all-campus reuse initiative that the Outhouse is involved in is the Mug Share group. Patel is one of a number of Whitman students working to make reusable “for-here” mugs available at the Reid Espresso bar. This effort would hopefully reduce paper cup waste generated by those who get coffee and then stay at Reid to drink it.

Evidenced by the plethora of projects happening at the Outhouse, it is a hub of reuse on campus. Many of the residents are partial environmental studies majors, and the shared mindset helps them to learn from one another and continue their efforts.

“Being around people who have similar ideals or goals as you do is always really, really helpful,” said sophomore Resident Assistant Ali Murray.

Reusing at Whitman is not purely based on the “green” ethics that seems

to circulate around the student body. Megan Oost, a senior art major, uses found objects to create her sculpture masterpieces.

“I looked at an old reclining lawn chair’s seat that mimicked the gestures I was using in clay,” said Oost, describing her first realization that found objects may fit into her artwork well.

For Oost, used objects are a unique and influential source of inspiration for her work. The choice of reusing things was a way to enhance herself as an artist, but unexpected values came from this type of art as well.

“It was mostly an aesthetic choice that I made this jump, but I like the ethics of it too,” said Oost.

Oost finds much of her inspiration at Stubblefield, a salvage and recycling yard in Walla Walla.

“It’s kind of depressing every time I go to Stubblefield and there is just so much stuff, and I just can’t bear to buy something new and use it,” said Oost.

With a boost from her newfound environmental ethics, Oost still focuses on the aesthetic values she found originally in the liberating art of using found objects. This jump from using purely clay to reusing materials provides a more interesting artistic viewpoint and gives character to a piece.

For instance, Oost visited a gallery in New York where an artist used a side panel of an RV that left the dirt on the side of the material. What some may call a flaw, Oost points out is “surprisingly meaningful.”

“There’s a lot of untapped content there too, because [the objects] have their own kind of connotations and references that can be emotive in ways that things that you make yourself can’t.”

by MOLLY EMMETTStaff Reporter

Recognizing ReusersRESOURCEFUL WHITTIES MESH CREATIVITY, GREEN ETHICS

“Being around people who have similar ideals or goals as you do is always really helpful”Ali Murray ’14

by TALIA RUDEEStaff Reporter

by TALIA RUDEEStaff Reporter

by MOLLY EMMETTStaff Reporter

Shared approach to reuse unites Outhouse Physics-astronomy major Alexe Helmke ’12 reappropriates used wine bottles to create candle holders in a creative effort to reuse, recycle materials instead of simply throwing them away. Photos by beck

Students at Whitman pur-sue creative reuse projects around campus, find inspi-ration in artistic sensibility, environmental awareness

MEGAN OOST SEES ARTISTIC POTENTIAL

IN FOUND OBJECT SCULPTURE

KAITLIN CLOUD SUCCESSFULLY AVOIDS CONSUMERISM IN NEW

YEAR’S RESOLUTION

ALEXE HELMKE REPURPOSES WINE BOTTLES IN HOME DECOR PROJECT