COLUMBIA, S.C. — We know the old saying: "One man’s trash is another man’s treasure."
On Monday, some children at the City of Columbia Art Center put that old adage to use, making art masterpieces from recycled, reused and found items.
“They’re amazing,” camper B.C. West said, while holding up a set of ‘dragon claws’ he made solely out of recycled materials.
The “Mix it Up” recycled art youth camp at Columbia Art Center teaches kids about art and sustainability.
“It’s amazing that you can do that,” said camper Stella Hutto. “Because at home, you have already learned how to do it, so you can do it again.”
The campers worked with recycled cardboard and paper to make masks Monday. Bohumila Augustinova, the program coordinator for Columbia Art Center says using these materials helps kids get creative and think about the environment.
“Reusing the materials that are already there instead of buying new things is always a good idea,” Augustinova said. “And I think it also teaches children to be a little more mindful and, you know, more caring for our planet.”
Director of the Office of Sustainability at the University of South Carolina, Larry Cook, says it's a good place to start.
“We do definitely need to start early so that people do start thinking about this,” Cook said. “And picking off the low-hanging fruit, doing what comes easily, starting to think about this more broadly, and then seeing where we can go from there.”
South Carolina's rate of recycling is 22.7% as of DHEC’s 2022 report. This number is calculated using the tonnage of recycled materials and the total population. The national recycling goal is to increase the recycling rate across the country to 50% by 2030.
Cook says introducing children to recycling, reusing, and thinking about the materials they interact (or make art) with builds the habit of recycling young, inspiring them to recycle and advocate for recycling bins or reusing of materials in their daily lives.
It can also be a starting point for the campers and other kids to focus on other green practices that can have a larger impact.
"The gateway that it provides to broader sustainability, so if you think first, I can mitigate personally some of the waste that I create by sending it through the recycling process, that’s great. And then maybe you get interested in composting your food waste," Cook said.
Cook also believes it’s important to make recycling, and other practices like composting, a part of the mainstream.
All of the camps at Columbia Art Center this summer are full, but the program coordinator says they’ll be back next year.