Nina Boesch's MetroCard Collages

Film, fashion, novels, poems and songs have all sung the praises of the Big Apple. These collages — spotted by our friends at EcoSalon — are ballads in the same vein.

Being the singularly iconic city that New York is, she has received love letters in the form of art of every kind. Now German-born and New York-based interaction designer and artist Nina Boesch is adding to the fanfare with a quintessential New York raw material: MetroCards. Boesch has been creating collages for over 10 years, collecting thousands of discarded MetroCards from NYC subway stations and fashioning the four-color collages out of their fragments, initially just for friends and family, and recently for a broader audience with exhibits in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Laguna Beach, California.

Landlocked Ocean Love: Go Plastic-Free

In 2011, over nine million pounds of trash was collected along the world's shorelines, according to the Ocean Conservancy. This Saturday is International Coastal Cleanup Day and if you don't live near a coastline, it might be hard to imagine how you can lend a hand. Water-lovers of the inlands, don't fret — we'll show you how to help.

Tip #4: Take the Plastic Trash Challenge

You may already be sporting reusable bags or cups, but what other ways do plastic products invade your life? Plastic is everywhere — and new plastic items enter your life on a daily basis. Whether you grab a bag of chips from the vending machine, a jug of milk for your family, or even chewing gum, plastic is included. It may have been convenient in the moment, but where does the plastic go from there? It could end up in our oceans or on our coastline. So what can you do to clean up your act? Blogger Beth Terry has some great tips for ways to cut out plastic in small ways, but if you wanna go big, try taking the Plastic Trash Challenge and track your plastic usage for an entire week. After seeing the amount of trash that can quickly pile up, you'll definitely be more conscious of your future plastic footprint.

--Photo courtesy of istock/TomFreeze

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Landlocked Ocean Love: Spread Word

In 2011, over nine million pounds of trash was collected along the world's shorelines, according to the Ocean Conservancy. This Saturday is International Coastal Cleanup Day and if you don't live near a coastline, it might be hard to imagine how you can lend a hand. Water-lovers of the inlands, don't fret — we'll show you how to help.

Tip #2: Spread the word.

You may not live near a coastline, but we're betting you have some friends or family who do. Encourage them to become a steward of the ocean. Activities for International Coastal Cleanup Day are planned nationwide and the more volunteers the merrier. There are plenty of options available, all they have to do is sign up to clean up. What if they can't find a location close by? Well, if they can't find a spot, encourage them to head to the beach anyway for a solo mission. If the satisfaction of picking up those pesky cigarette butts, plastic products, and other random trash isn't enough, at least they get to spend a day at the beach. Who knows, maybe encouraging others into action will inspire you to go on an outing of your own and join them at that beach.

--Photo by iStockphoto/Matauw

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Landlocked Ocean Love: Park Pick-up

In 2011, over nine million pounds of trash was collected along the world's shorelines, according to the Ocean Conservancy. This Saturday is International Coastal Cleanup Day and if you don't live near a coastline, it might be hard to imagine how you can lend a hand. Water-lovers of the inlands, don't fret — we'll show you how to help.  

Tip #1: Organize a park cleanup.

Everything from the inlands eventually works its way out to the coastline. So one of the best ways to show some ocean love is to keep the streets and parks of your own town as litter-free as possible. Contact your local city chamber and find out if there are any cleanups that you can join. If there's a river nearby, focus your efforts there and become a Sierra Club Water Sentinel.  If there aren't any local events planned, branch out on your own! If you spread the word to your friends, family, and neighbors chances are you'll get a lot of supporters. You can even put in the footwork and go door-to-door to get volunteers or create a Facebook event to organize your efforts. Either way, bringing together your community to clean up your area is a great way to keep that trash out of the gutter and out of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

--Photo courtesy of istock/noticelj

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5 DIY Tutorials for Fall Accessories

Break out the scarves, hats, and gloves — September is here.

Frigid winds and dry, cracked skin are coming for us all in just a few weeks (unless you live in a warm state, in which case, carry on). Fall has a lot of qualities that redeem the cold weather: piles of leaves, apple cider, and pumpkin-flavored everything. Most important, fall clothing just has nostalgia and hot chocolate written all over it.

Even if you managed to hold on to your accessories from last winter, you might feel the need to update your collection. Rather than buying new, consider this a challenge to get your DIY on. Here's a roundup of five tutorials for creating your own winter gear.

1. Slouchy Beanie

13-Year-Old Fights Big Plastic Bill

How old do you have to be to fight a massive, environment-destroying industry? Younger than you think.

Abby Goldberg, a 13-year-old from Grayslake, Ill., started a petition on Change.org to veto the "Plastic Bag Film and Recycling Act." The title of the bill sounds deceptively benign. What could be so bad about requiring more plastic bag recycling facilities? The problem is that it would take away the power of towns to implement their own strategies for reducing waste, including bans on bags. Why recycle plastic bags when towns can ban them altogether?

Goldberg's petition received over 170,000 signatures. Earlier this summer, she personally delivered the petition to Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, who vetoed the bill on Sunday.

According to a Change.org press release, Goldberg said, "I couldn’t sit by quietly while big plastic tried to push this bill through my state. . . I care too much about animals, our environment, and our future natural resources to be silent. That’s why I took action, and why I’m so thankful that Governor Quinn took a stand for the environment in vetoing this bill.”

--Image by iStockphoto/Matt_Brown

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Krislyn Placide is an editorial intern at Sierra going into her fourth year of journalism school at Northwestern University. When she's not updating the blog, she likes running through parks and eating her weight in watermelon.

Gowns Made from Upcycled Olympic Speedos

Our friends at EcoSalon found these gorgeous red carpet-worthy dresses made from upcycled Speedo fabric, from suits worn by Olympic swimmers.

Now that the Olympics are over, and the American swimmers nabbed more gold medals in swimming than ever before, what happens to all those old Speedos? UK-based designer Orsola de Castro has been making high-end fashion from recycled materials since 1997, through the fashion label From Somewhere. One of the brand’s newest collections is made from, you guessed it, upcycled Speedo fabric.

Recycled Bomb Shards Become Olympic Bangles

Want to celebrate the Olympics in style? Our friends at EcoSalon spotted these unique bangles.

The start of the 2012 London Olympics will be celebrated with a lavish opening ceremony on Friday. Whether or not you’ll be following along on the television, you can show your Olympic pride by wearing these limited-edition Peacebomb bangles from Article22.

Created in honor of the unity and spirit of Olympic competition, the bangles are inspired by the Olympic rings, which were designed in 1912 and debuted at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics and represent the five continents involved in the games. Like all pieces in Article22′s Peacebomb collection, each bracelet is made in Laos, entirely out of melted bomb shards. The bangles are hand cast by artisans who collect scrap metal from the 250-260 million bombs that were dropped over the Laos countryside during the Vietnam War and wrapped with nylon (colors) or leather cord (black).

For each Peacebomb product sold, Project Peacebomb donates funds equivalent to the cost of clearing 1 to 15 square meters of land in Laos from unexploded bombs. In true Olympic spirit, you are also helping people in war-torn areas of the world earn a living wage.

Are Plastic Food Containers Too Toxic to Reuse?

Hey Mr. Green,

There has been a lot of discussion about hazards of using plastic, especially related to bisphenol A, or BPA. We try to avoid buying anything in plastic, but over the years we have acquired plastic containers, like one-quart yogurt containers, which we use to store food in the refrigerator. Is this a bad idea? We wash and reuse them many times and wonder if chemicals are leaching into the food that is stored?  We also wash and reuse plastic bags to buy bulk foods. Could this also be hazardous?  We have not seen this issue addressed and hope you have an answer.  –-Rick in Berkeley, California

Now that we are deep into the Plastic Age, questions about material safety and environmental impact have become a bit more complicated than in previous technological epochs like the Bronze or Iron Ages.

Recycled Crafts: Advice from a Career Crafter

Expert crafter Kayte Terry is living the DIYer's dream — she has turned repurposing into a career. We asked the author of Paper Made! 101 Exceptional Projects to Make Out of Everyday Paper (Workman, 2012) to tell us how she did it. 

SIERRA: Tell us about crafting as a career. 

Kayte Terry: I've gone down lots of different paths. I've written books, contributed to magazines and blogs, sold at craft fairs, taught classes, and worked as a stylist. It takes a lot of time to get to a point where just one of these things pays the bills. Most professional crafters I know do a combination of jobs as well; I think it just comes with the territory. But I actually like it! I get bored doing the same thing over and over again. 

When I started trying to make a living from making things, crafting was just starting to trend again. I would tell people I was crafty and they would stare at me like I had two heads. But now there are so many more opportunities! Everyone knows about Etsy, almost every magazine has a DIY column or two, it's a great time to be a crafter!

What advice do you have for others who want to make a career of crafting?