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And after this interview, I realized we had a more similar back story and appreciation for reuse than

Bridging The Gap Between Trash and Art Supplies I first came across artist Brad Bianchi's work online and seeing that he lived in Pittsburgh, where I had once lived and still stop a lot, I knew that we'd meet. And after an initial meeting and bonding over reuse, coffee and a similar love for 80s pop culture, we started finding ways to work together. We've collaborated on numerous projects over the years like STAY VOCAL T-Shirts, a custom art piece for The REUSE! Box Truck and finding a place for the truck to park when I roll through Pittsburgh! It's always great seeing Brad and his vast array of unique pieces. And I love trying to figure out what materials he used in a piece. You'll experience that below. Enjoy! 1. So, when people visit your galleries, it's clear that you like a few different styles and mediums. The first one that got us collaborating was your "Bradlines" series. How did that come to be and how has it evolved? My line works started when I was around 16. Back in the days of landlines, I would watch both my parents doodle while on the phone. So I started mimicking these patterns and creating my own style. It has evolved in so many ways for me over the years. I have drawn on a wide range of mediums and physical objects. And after years and many miles of lines it has become a meditative practice for me. 2. You also make some really unique sculptures out of used materials that many would deem "trash" or "recyclables." What drew you to those items as mediums? My parents were a huge influence on this side as well. My mom was always finding unique wood furniture pieces being discarded, sometimes needing a restoration and others only needing a good cleaning. One day I decided to turn our old jungle gym into an enclosed treehouse. My dad would bring home surplus and reclaimed lumber from job sites for the transformation. He found me some exotic woods and surplus oak flooring while I was studying furniture design in college and he has continued to this day. I’m a lucky one. 3. What's your favorite used item to find and incorporate into art? And do you have any favorite places to "shop?" I really enjoy finding multiples of an object. Weird, unrecognizable metal pieces and old homemade wood objects are some of my favorite finds. Estate sales are definitely my number one spot to shop. I never know what I could find and it’s so neat getting a glimpse into the tiny basement/garage home workshops of yesterday. Plus most of the items I’m seeking are still there at the end of the sale when prices are at the lowest! 4. So, while I'm certainly a solutions guy, we do have to address the problems. Where do you see the most waste in your daily life? Plastic food and drink packaging without a doubt is the worst. It is one time use and almost everywhere you look when outside. 5. In your personal experience, how do you think recycling has worked and NOT worked as a solution to waste? The recycling process for many items is way too much for our environment. Recycling has given people a false idea of the destruction caused by plastic. I would love to see more aluminum being used as it is the only material that can be recycled without too much damage. 6. How do you think the U.S. could step up the solutions to our waste problem? Have you seen or heard of anything anywhere else? I would like to see it become mandatory for corporations to lessen and make all packaging more reusable. Things like labels that can be easily removed, caps that have other uses such as measuring cups, and anything that can be made compostable. The “cigarette butt disposal polling bins” should be in every place where they accumulate. Sometimes you have to make it a fun game, because those are the number one thing we don’t need scattered across our environment. 7. It's funny. I always tell people that reusing is nothing new. It’s been going on long before we were here. Do you have any memories of your parents or grandparents reusing in unique ways? I have always loved how metal cookie tins have been reused by prior generations. They have held so many things from sewing supplies to screws and keepsakes, and continue being used after 50+ years. 8. Do you have any notable stories about saving money on something because you bought it used instead of new? In 2014, I bought a 1989 Chevy pickup truck for $250. It had over 225,000 miles when I got it. I drove it for 18 months 'til the engine blew and I sold it again for $250. Then about a year or two after that I saw it being sold again on Craigslist. I like to imagine it’s closing in on 500k miles with its 6-7th engine and transmission. 9. Have you ever taken anything out of the recycling bin or trash to reuse somehow or maybe found something on the side of the road? Just about every time I’m near a side of the road I will find some tiny, interesting metal object. I always have an eye out on trash night for some special finds. My partner showed me a floral company dumpster that is always full of half used tea light candles from events. I’ve gathered those a few times and used them with a terracotta pot to create a mini heater in my studio. 10. And lastly, what’s the best thing that you ever got used and why? Got a photo? That is a tough one. The fact that I’ve been able to save many thousands of pounds of objects and materials from a landfill brings me the most joy. I’ve had the opportunity to reuse personal objects in commissions for loved ones of a deceased family member, that’s extra special. I just love the irony in reusing a single use object that was never thought to be an art material. To learn more about Brad, his art , and maybe even hire him for a custom piece, head over to Brad's Instagram gallery here. To order the "Bradlines Cover Up" T-Shirt that Brad is wearing in his profile photo (and that he designed), head over to the STAY VOCAL Shop .

Observing From The Outside and Inspiring Change from The Inside Back in the late 1990s, I ran a street promotions company in Boston; mainly for record companies and their artists. One of our main tactics to promote albums was putting up poster boards around phone poles in high traffic areas. And one of the bands that we worked for was Pilfers, a ska/punk/reggae band from New York. In 1999, the band came to Boston to play a show at one of the clubs near Fenway Park. I wanted to make a big splash for them, so my team and I put up a ton of posters along the entire street. When the band showed up, they were stoked. It was like a giant welcoming party with posters lining the street. Unfortunately, though, the local authorities weren't equally as happy. They threatened to charge the band a fine for each poster and since I had gone a little crazy, it was going to be around a $20,000 fine! Fortunately, it all got sorted out by the band and venue and I think we had to take some (or all) of them down. But as the saying goes, any press is good pres. The band loved it, especially the singer, Coolie Ranx, and a friendship was born. In the winter of 2000, I had one of those moments that I'll always remember. I was in an Ocean State Job lot shopping with my mom and luckily, I was an early adopter of cell phones. I got a call from Coolie and he asked me if I wanted to be the band's new merch guy and go on tour with them for 2 months... leaving in 2 days! Without much deliberation, I said yes. And it was one of the best decisions that I ever made. Later that day, my mom took me to a Circuit City, where I got my first laptop (one of the only new ones I've bought), and I was ready to hit the road with the band. Talking about one of the shirts I sold on tour when I gave it away a decade ago. On that tour, Coolie took me under his wing in various ways and those experiences started a whole chain of events of me touring around the world doing merch for bands. I'm so glad that I could stay connected with him over the years. And while our worlds are seperate these days, all I need to do is put on a Pilfers song or video and be transported back to those important times in my life. Alright, let's meet Coolie. 1. So, when I was working for Pilfers, we had a few items at the merch booth that were printed on pre-owned garments; like gas station shirts and imperfect blank basketball jerseys from Champion. Why do you think these were so popular at that time in the punk and ska scene? Have they made a comeback at all? At the time, it was accessible, comfortable clothing that we made the fabric of the scene for the simple. We carved out a fashion of the day, which hails from the rockabilly scene. The first time I ever saw these type shirts was on "Happy Days," the tv show. In Pilfers world, basketball jerseys will always be fashionable. Sadly enough, the basketball jerseys are made overseas and the outlets we used to go to no longer exist. The gas station workman's shirts haven't made a resurgence yet, but they will for sure. I took this photo of Coolie and Nick from Pilfers in 2000 with a one man band that we met on tour. Coolie's wearing one of the Pilfers jerseys printed on a discarded, blank Detroit Pistons jersey. 2. With your music and your online presence, you have certainly not been quiet about your beliefs and politics. Could you talk about what has inspired you to use your platform to start those conversations?  I'm a first generation illegal-turned-legal immigrant. My views have always been one of an outsider looking in; not comparing anything to anything, just being able to be objective. I loved history growing up and enjoyed the stories of civil rights told by the older folks on the block: Vietnam vets and just people I would come in contact with. I experienced racism and injustice at an early age of 9. I saw how quickly life could be turned upside down for me in mere seconds for being the wrong shade of color. I was picked up from my stoop in front of my family home and brought to the hospital for an impromptu line up where a man was injured and paraded in front of him. He determined that I was not the person who assaulted him. The cops didn't ask or inform my parents; just took me off my stoop. Life could have been different if he decided anyone could pay for his injury. Many more incidents, but it's too long to write. One of the vintage Pilfers shirts printed on used work shirts. 3. Since I stopped touring years ago, I haven't visited a lot of venues around the country like I used to. Have there been any positive sustainability changes that you've seen?  I would say, Alex, things haven't changed much. No healthy choices are readily available for musicians, as dietary supplements go. Although cigarette smoking isn't a thing anymore. 4. So, while I'm certainly a solutions guy, we do have to address the problems. Where do you see the most waste in your daily life? I would just start with the food industry. The laws providing homeless people food are archaic at best. You can be arrested for giving people food, while the industry discards tons of food daily. I donated several of my coats last year to my nieces church. I have just two winter coats. Mind you, I have had most of my coats for over 15 years. A mini-reunion of my first tour when I saw Pilfers play with J. Navarro & the Traitors in Boston. 5. In your personal experience, how do you think recycling has worked and NOT worked as a solution to waste?  Well, I can tell you as a person who recycles religiously in our home, the waste can be used to make other products and not clog up and poison the earth's airs, lands and waters. Recycling is like a natural process like growing food. You plant, you eat, you plant again, you throw the remnants back into the soil. You wear, you outgrow, you recycle, you break down the material into something else and the clothes are reborn again.  6. It's funny. I always tell people that reusing is nothing new. It’s been going on long before we were here. Do you have any memories of your parents or grandparents reusing in unique ways?  Actually, my mum in England always composts, bought old bikes, fixed them up for us, and we were taught to sew holes in our clothes. The phrase, "Waste not, Want not," was common in the house. Coolie with his mom, brother, and family friends using some of those old bikes that she fixed up. 7. Do you have any notable stories about saving money on something because you bought it used instead of new? Ok, so I look for the open-items in Home Depot, as I know they'll throw them out. I actually make it a mission to seek out the open items. I buy my salt for the pavements, I buy cement  and sand to pave the sidewalk, I buy tiles, I buy broken plaster. It's just my thing, because I know for sure it's discount time.  At the end of the day, they'll discard them. 8. Have you ever taken anything out of the recycling bin or trash to reuse somehow or maybe found something on the side of the road? Funny you say that. I dumpster-dive in my old area, it's a college town and have found tables and chairs that have followed me to my new home. A table that Coolie found on the side of the road in his neighborhood near Fordham University. Every year, students leave giant piles of possessions for the trash pickup. Fortunately, a lot of it gets rescued from neighbors. The old Alex in me wants to put a big Pilfers sticker on it. To learn more about Coolie and listen to Pilfers' music, connect with Coolie on Instagram or check out the Pilfers Bandcamp. To order a One of a Kind REUSE! T-Shirt like Coolie is wearing in his profile photo, head over to the STAY VOCAL One of a Kind Gallery. COMMENT SECTION BELOW

to be outspoken politically on stage, but I can’t understand how artists don’t raise their voice in interviews

And after talking with Rachel Meyer for a while, I knew that I needed to interview her for this series

You Can't Have a Clean, Safe Ocean Without Less Waste and More Reuse I first met Nancy Downes at Green Road Refill , the eco-refill shop on Cape Cod that I do a lot of work with. With a strangely similar background in living in California and working in the music industry leading to actively trying to make the world a better place, we became fast friends and cohorts. Since then, we've teamed up on a few events, including a virtual coffee chat where I didn't have any coffee to drink! Nancy's work is focused on the ocean, but if there's one thing that has become glaringly obvious around the world, you can't have a clean, safe ocean without less waste and more reuse. 1. So, you work for Oceana, one of the leading Ocean conservation nonprofits. What is the organization all about and what does your role entail? Thanks so much for your interest in Oceana ! Oceana is the largest international advocacy organization dedicated solely to ocean conservation. The organization campaigns in nine coastal countries and the European Union for science-based policies that stop overfishing, protect habitat, increase transparency, protect our climate, curb plastic pollution, and increase biodiversity. As Field Campaigns Manager in Massachusetts, my work is focused on passing strong (local, state, federal) policies to reduce the production and use of single-use plastics, stop any new offshore oil drilling leases, and reducing threats to the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, including entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with boats. 2. You clearly have a passion for our oceans, as you're an avid surfer too. What drew you to the ocean? My love of the ocean goes back to childhood summers enjoying the beaches of Cape Cod with my family. Long walks along the beaches of Harwich Port with my Mom, bodysurfing the waves of Nauset beach with my Dad, and in my late teen years attending summer camp in Ocean Park, Maine. During a family trip to Hawaii in the early 90’s I signed up for my first surfing lesson at Lahaina Harbor in Maui, and was immediately hooked, and have been surfing ever since. 3. In the surfing world, how much does reuse come into play? The surfing industry could do a lot more to prioritize reuse. Most surfboards are made from (polyurethane) foam, fiberglass cloth and resin with a surprising amount of waste generated in the production process (offcuts of fiberglass, excess tape and resin, stir sticks, foam dust, etc.) Wetsuits are primarily made of neoprene, a synthetic rubber. There are a handful of thought-leaders in the surfing industry leading the way to research and develop more environmental and sustainable / zero-waste solutions. This includes recycling EPS (expanded polystyrene) foam blanks and running excess plastic waste through high density plastic shredders to be recycled back into the board manufacturing process. Some wetsuit manufacturers are exploring petroleum-free rubber alternatives (natural rubber and limestone neoprene) and repurposing recycled PET plastics into the inner linings of wetsuits, as some examples of reuse. 4. So, while I'm certainly a solutions guy, we do have to address the problems. Where do you see the most waste in your daily life? Hands down, the most waste I see in my day-to-day life is in excess plastic packaging. From food items commonly purchased at the grocery store, to the ways items are packaged and shipped from online retailers, we tend to over-package just about everything. There are certain fruits and vegetables that come with their own natural wrapping (bananas, oranges) yet we often see these items individually wrapped or bundled in plastic bags. Online retailers will sell items wrapped in plastic, sometimes double wrapped, then surrounded by excessive plastic peanuts or air bags, often bundled in another shipping (“jiffy”) bag or oversized box that does not get reused or recycled. 5. In your personal experience, how do you think recycling has worked and NOT worked as a solution to waste? Recycling does not appear to be working, according to most studies around the world. As plastic pollution became a more noticeable problem in the late 70’s into the 1980’s (my teen years), recycling was sold to us as a solution by the plastics industry (we all remember the crying native American Indian commercial – paid for by Keep America Beautiful, founded and funded by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo), putting the responsibility of cleaning up plastic waste back on to the consumer vs. the producers. 6. How do you think the U.S. could step up the solutions to our waste problem? Have you seen or heard of anything anywhere else? The US / Federal Government needs to pass strong policies that would significantly reduce the production and use of single-use plastics. Some countries have successfully passed strong policies regulating plastic packaging & plastic bags, and have significantly reduced plastic pollution (Ex: Rwanda, Kenya, Iceland, Sweden). Not surprisingly, island nations with limited resources and limited space for landfills and-or limited funds for waste management infrastructure tend to lead the way. 7. It's funny. I always tell people that reusing is nothing new. It’s been going on long before we were here. Do you have any memories of your parents or grandparents reusing in unique ways? My grandparents had a house in Shrewsbury, MA and I have vivid memories as a child of the milk man delivering milk in glass bottles to the back door. My grandmother would scoop the thick cream off the top of the bottles to make butter, and used bottles would be put back in the metal crate outside for the milk man to take back for refilling. My grandfather took old canning jars and screwed the cap of the jars to the wooden rafters in the basement, and he would fill the glass jars with used nails, screws, nuts, bolts and other mechanical fasteners and hardware to be reused around the house on future projects. We also had a monthly delivery of potato chips from Charles Chips, which came in a metal tin, and we would return the old tin upon receiving the next delivery. 8. Do you have any notable stories about saving money on something because you bought it used instead of new? I wish I had a calculator that could tell me the total amount of money saved by buying used items vs. new… it would probably be a LOT of money saved! I’ll share a more recent proud moment, where I purchased a used painting from a local thrift store for $10 and repainted the canvas to make my very own Jackson Pollock knock-off of “Summertime 9A” for my mid-century modern living room. 9. Have you ever taken anything out of the recycling bin or trash to reuse somehow or maybe found something on the side of the road? Absolutely! I have no problem with dumpster-diving to save a perfectly good item from ending up in the landfill. My neighbors constantly throw away brand-new cardboard boxes that I reuse for storage or shipping items, and garden or patio items that I have repurposed in my own garden. Numerous furniture items in my home come from Facebook marketplace, yard sales, or thrift stores. 10. And lastly, what’s the best thing that you ever got used and why? Got a photo? The BEST thing, by far, is “Big Blue”, my 9’8” Dive ‘n Surf longboard that I bought used from a former boss when I worked at Surfrider Foundation . I think I paid $80 for that surfboard and have created over a decade of amazing surfing memories on that board. I also have a few cherished pieces of jewelry handed down from my mother and grandmother… and of course, a STAY VOCAL T-Shirt from you! 😊 To learn more about Nancy, Oceana, and see more surfing photos of her, head over to Nancy's Instagram here. To order the "713" T-Shirt that Nancy is wearing in her profile photo, head over to the STAY VOCAL Shop .

So, I thought it would seem fitting to interview the woman responsible for me being on Earth.

Championing Sustainability for a Global Company in Singapore Last spring, I got a random message from a woman in Singapore about my YouTube Video, "World's Biggest Volkswagen Diecast Model Car Collection" . That woman was Nicole Golloso and she was an avid collector of Volkswagen Beetle toys and was interested in buying some of them. While I wasn't selling any of the cars at the time, we got talking about how they were gathered during a long term consulting job and massive house cleanout that I did. This naturally led to my work in sustainability, which led to Nicole sharing that she works with sustainability in her job for McCann Worldgroup, a global advertising agency with offices in 120 countries. Working for such a huge company across the globe, I thought Nicole would be a great person to talk to about how reuse solutions and the resulting benefits play a role in her life. 1. You're based in Singapore; somewhere I don't know too much about. I was wondering if used clothing and thrift stores are popular like they are in the U.S.? While I don’t think it’s as popular as it is in the U.S., there are actually a good number of thrift stores in Singapore. For clothes, you can find some of it by Haji Lane (an alley filled with shophouses that have been turned into commercial spaces) and Lucky Plaza (shopping centre by Orchard Road mostly known for having many Filipino stores). There is also a brand called ‘Refash’ which has branches around major shopping areas in Singapore where you can sell and buy pre-loved clothes. For furniture or house items, there are also plenty of second-hand and antique shops where you can find beautiful pieces for affordable prices. My favorite spots are Hock Siong and the Tan Boon Liat Building (a 15-story building of mostly furniture shops and showrooms). 2. Relatedly, I'm a big coffee drinker, so if I was to ever visit Singapore, I would head straight for a coffee shop. Are coffee shops in Singapore similar, where most people get coffee in single use, disposable cups? And are reuse options available? Sadly, it’s not yet widely practiced in Singapore. If I’m not mistaken, Starbucks is the only well-known coffee shop that has an all-year round program that encourages this wherein you get 50 cents off your drink if you bring your own cup. Nicole speaks about sustainability at a conference in Malaysia. 3. As a Director of Human Resources and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for a large company, does sustainability get involved in your work? Yes it does. I am one of the Sustainability Champions that represent APAC in our Global Sustainability Community. Apart from actively taking part in sustainability-related discussions, I am also responsible for rolling out sustainability programs, implementing changes in our practices & processes to reduce our carbon footprint, and facilitating training courses (e.g Green Claims, Recycling, etc.) in the markets that I handle. Some of the notable things we’ve done in Singapore include: Putting recycling bins around our office for paper, cans and plastics, and partnering with organizations that turns those into new products (e.g. coasters, carabiners, etc.) Having a compost bin for our food waste Purchasing Second Hand Furniture from thrift and antique stores for all our meeting rooms when we did our office renovations last year Using recyclable materials for costumes and props that we make for our different office parties, and reusing/repurposing office decorations for cultural events. Some of the coasters at Nicole's office made with discarded materials from her office. 4. So, while I'm certainly a solutions guy, we do have to address the problems. Where do you see the most waste in your daily life? Packaging of different food and household items for sure. 5. In your personal experience, how do you think recycling has worked and NOT worked as a solution to waste? One of my biggest challenges is doing the recycling on my own due to constraints in schedule, space etc. Thus, when I set aside items which I don’t want to waste or I’m hoping to recycle such as paper bags, clothes, linens, etc., it just ends up piling up in my condo for nothing. This is why I’m so glad that that there are collection boxes/ bins around Singapore (1 of which is a 5-min walk from my condo) where you can drop off apparels, textiles, household items, electronics etc.. so they can do the recycling for you. (Check this article out: https://mustsharenews.com/textile-recycling-bins/amp/ ) One of the meeting rooms at Nicole's office. Everything in that room, except for the carpet, are second hand and/or restored furniture. 6. How do you think the Philippines could step up the solutions to the waste problem? Have you seen or heard of anything anywhere else? I think education should be a big part of it. The private and public sectors must lead educational campaigns on recycling, segregation, proper waste management etc. with emphasis on its negative short and long term effects. Enforcement policies related to waste management must also be strengthened on an institutional, local and national level. Communities must be engaged actively and probably also incentivized in a way that it could also impact other aspects of their lives in the long run (e.g. supporting or establishing more social enterprises that can provide more jobs) 7. It's funny. I always tell people that reusing is nothing new. It’s been going on long before we were here. Do you have any memories of your parents or grandparents reusing in unique ways? My grandmother is a very fashionable woman with a unique style, and something I remember her doing a lot is repurposing extra textiles or clothes that she has to make it into bags, shoes and accessories. Also, something that’s common in a Filipino household is reusing all sorts of containers to store food. [Nicole is originally from the Philippines] A popular choice? Ice cream tubs to store fish/meat in the freezer. 8. Do you have any notable stories about saving money on something because you bought it used instead of new? It’s not a secret that Singapore is a very expensive country to live in. Apart from items being pricey, services also cost a lot. So when I moved to Singapore, I was so fortunate to have been able to buy a lot of the old furniture of the previous tenant of my condo. I only paid SGD 800 ($590 USD) for the following items which were barely used: Haylee Queen sized Mattress with headboard (Typical Cost: $600-800) 2-seater sofa (Typical cost ($200-500) 4-seater Ikea dining table (Cost: $629) Ikea coffee table (Cost: $69) Kitchen rack, shoe rack and bed side table (Est. Cost: $100-150) Nicole sits in her condo with the furniture that she bought from the previous tenant. That made for an easier move! 9. Have you ever taken anything out of the recycling bin or trash to reuse somehow or maybe found something on the side of the road? Not really ‘cause it’s not a typical practice in the Philippines and in Singapore nor did I have a huge space in my apartment in LA before even if I wanted to. It’s more my sister and brother-in-law who have done this a few times in both Colorado and Wisconsin, mostly furniture. 10. And lastly, what’s the best thing that you ever got used and why? Got a photo? On a practical note, it’s my first car which was a Silver Honda Civic 2007 because it was reliable and it served its purpose. On a personal note, it would be the 12 Volkswagen Beetle toys I got in Frankfurt, Germany from a Barista I randomly met in a hole-in-a-wall cafe😅. I’m a VW Beetle Toy Collector and these are things that genuinely make me happy. When Nicole travels, she brings a vintage Volkswagen Beetle toy to make her photos a little more unique. To learn more about Nicole and her work , you can visit her LinkedIn page here. To order a One of a Kind REUSE! T-Shirt like Nicole is wearing in her profile photo, head over to the can STAY VOCAL One of a Kind Gallery .

Learning A Careful Life of Consumption, Just In Case This past April, I was at the College of the Holy Cross for an event with The REUSE! Box Truck. A lot of students and staff passed through that day and I had some great conversations. But one of those conversations stuck out and I knew the story that student told me was something I had to share. Well, without further delay, I'll let Ross take over. 1. When I visited Holy Cross, you told me an amazing story about converting a bus into a tiny house. Could you share that story? My dad and I renovated an inherited 1959 35’ retired transit bus into an RV! When my Grandpa was studying at the University of Denver, he drove commercial busses in the 1960’s for a company called Trailways. When he retired, he and his diesel mechanic friend bought the same model bus broken down in a field in Florida. They fixed it up and would drive it to Truck shows around the country. It is a 1959 GM PD 4104 Bus; the same model the Freedom Riders burned down in civil rights protests. And it came from the same General Motors plant that produced bombers during WWII in Detroit, Michigan. In 2020, my grandpa passed. My dad and I had never driven in the bus or anything and it kind of just fell into our hands. We went through the thing as a team and learned to drive it and maintain the ancient 35’ aluminum vehicle. Shortly after, we renovated the interior to make it a usable camper/RV that we could take to campgrounds. It was previously renovated to an RV sometime in the 80’s, but the interior was in terrible shape. We used as much as possible from the old RV conversion and spiced up the interior into a pretty cool setup. We put up new walls, reused old ceiling tiles, reused and painted some cabinets, modified the original kitchen tile/drawers/etc so that it would work with a our desired new setup, etc etc. It took us about 2 months working on it everyday for a summer to finish the interior. The bus however is a constant project and it’s always in need of some sort of repair. The thing rocks! The bus! (Be sure to check out the video of the bus at the end.) 2. What benefits have you experienced from the bus conversion? I learned so much about construction, fabrication, and I learned that you can do cool things by building on top or modifying someone or something’s existing setup. It would have been way less effort to just buy a new modern fiberglass camper and have the thing ready to go. This Bus, despite its ancient age, is something that will hopefully last just as long as the fiberglass camper rolling off the factory floor. Newer isn’t always better. That fiberglass camper made in 2025 will likely fall apart and the frame will rot far before the aluminum bus retires from the road. Old used stuff is good too!!! 3. Has the experience with the bus made you look at traditional housing (and structures in general) differently? Totally. There’s this theory in environmental sociology called Onerous consumption. It’s typically used when analyzing how homesteaders or people who live off the grid interact with their environment. The idea is that they practice a careful life of consumption and are constantly evaluating how much water/electricity/gas, etc they are consuming because they do not have an unlimited supply via a nearby electrical plant. When we go camping in the bus, these same principles apply. You have to carefully calculate how long you can run appliances for to not drain the batteries and have to track how much water you are consuming to ensure enough for critical water enabled tasks. This has made me realize how incredibly wasteful my life is when I’m not camping and not limited by my batteries or water tank levels. Ross and his dad during the bus build. 4. So, while I'm certainly a solutions guy, we do have to address the problems. Where do you see the most waste in your daily life? Certainly in my consumption of water and electricity. When I’m at home, I can take a long comforting shower and run the washer and dryer without thinking twice. Sure, there is a bill that arrives at our doorstep every month, but I am not actively thinking about this when I turn the shower knob or activate my dryer. 5. In your personal experience, how do you think recycling has worked and NOT worked as a solution to waste? We’ve all been socialized in “reduce, reuse, recycle” since we were kids. You know, the idea that separating plastic from the trash bin is doing our part to go green. I think on an individual level, recycling actually has a net negative effect on how most people engage with their personal mission of ‘going green.’ I think separating trash from recycling and religiously taking the recycling out to the street every Monday lulls a lot of people into complacency. It feels like you’re doing something, but if you actually step back and analyze the systems that caused the waste, these systems are often broken and yet universally accepted. Let me be clear, I do recycle. But I understand that often times recycling won't actually achieve very much and it actually distracts me from the actual environmental problems. I like to think of it this way: instead of picking up all the trash on the beach once it washes up on shore (recycling), why don’t we trace the trash back to its original source (i.e., systems/companies that actually create the waste)? In my opinion, we are too focused on the products of wastefulness and not the systems that produce them. The idea of recycling and the push to encourage people to recycle focuses their efforts on a better way to deal with the products of waste. This lulls people away from those systemic calculations. In short, I think recycling, while well intentioned, often serves as a feel good distraction that masks deeper systemic issues driving environmental harm. By emphasizing individual action like sorting waste, we avoid confronting the industries and systems that generate excessive waste in the first place. True sustainability requires shifting focus from managing waste to preventing its creation. Environmental buzz words like recycling also enables huge corporate companies or other environmentally predatory systems (that are the biggest polluters) to ‘pat themselves on the back’ to their environmentally conscious consumers with buzz word initiatives. The environmentally conscious individual sees a recycling campaign as a "Hell yeah." So, when a large corporation boasts about recycling in the sustainability section of its website, despite its business model relying on environmental damage elsewhere, people look the other way and are satisfied with the corporate recycling initiative. I’m guilty of this. Who cares where a product comes from or where it goes when it’s discarded if it says "made from recycled materials" on it or the company website’s sustainability initiatives brag about rad buzz words like ‘composting’ and ‘recycling’ initiatives. Hey, as long as we place it in the blue bin when we’re finished with it who cares right? The consumer washes their hands of this problem. This is a resignation of conscience. Henry David Thoreau famously said a similar thing about voting and slavery in the 1800s: “I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail. I am willing to leave it to the majority. Its obligation, therefore, never exceeds that of expediency. Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, not wish it to prevail through the power of the majority.” - Henry David Thoreau Civil Disobedience Talking about slavery and abolition, he’s saying that when people voted against slavery, but the majority of America elects representatives who still support slavery, progressive abolitionists had the following conclusion: ”Shoot! I voted against slavery but it didn’t sweep the majority. That’s all I can do. I will do absolutely nothing about this until the next election. Then a few years later, I’ll spend 5 minutes voting and hope my party wins. This cycle will repeat. And I’ll actively do nothing to act on my opinion but vote for a party that keeps losing. Better luck next time. Hope my neighbors in the south magically change their views and come to the same conclusion,” as slavery persists. The argument I’m making is that institutions like voting and buzz words like recycling lull us into complacency in unjust environmental systems similar to this. Let me be clear, buzz words like recycling and composting are cool things that can have real effects. The idea is that we can’t let these buzz words distract us as a cover up from the truth behind some predatory environmental systems. Recycling is often praised as a simple solution to environmental problems. We have this environmentally conscious energy and that is why so many people go out of the way to recycle. Imagine if we channeled that energy beyond the buzz words into the systemic cause or problems? The focus on personal habits, like tossing a bottle in the right bin, shifts attention away from the corporations and systems that profit from overproduction and disposability. If we’re serious about sustainability, the goal shouldn’t be cleaning up the mess. The goal should be not making it in the first place. HOW IT’S WORKED: I think recycling has worked amazingly for things like metal and industrial materials. For example, an important part broke on the rear axle of the bus. It weighed probably two thousand pounds or so; all super legit cast iron. The internal gears of the piece were seized, not to be used to propel a Bus again. But when it arrived at the scrap yard, those two thousand pounds of cast iron were undoubtedly and efficiently put to work in another product. This is a no brainer and should be expanded. Save your broken products of life from the dump and let’s create systems within our waste system to harvest reusable materials. The giant piece of the bus axle that was properly recycled at a scrap yard. Composting is also a cool form of recycling I’ve seen put to good use. It’s becoming more popular and it’s such a good way to use food scraps. All the thermal energetic potential in the food scraps we eat can so easily be fused into food fuel. It is still rare these days. There’s a private company in my town that does composting but it is not a town run program on a large scale. Let’s get a third bin out on our streets full of compost and reduce the need to produce food system fuel in its place. 6. How do you think the U.S. could step up the solutions to our waste problem? Have you seen or heard of anything anywhere else? I think just education. We’re all sheltered from the huge waste problem the U.S. has. I think there’s a statistic that if everyone lived like U.S. citizen’s we would need like 7 earths. That is crazy. The lifestyle we live is unsustainable but we are never really confronted with that. We are sheltered from this reality. If we all were a tad bit more educated about the gross overconsumption we engage with, I think the U.S. could actively work towards mitigating this problem. After all, it takes people who care to foster any change. And, if more people care, that is certainly a positive in reducing our waste. 7. It's funny. I always tell people that reusing is nothing new. It’s been going on long before we were here. Do you have any memories of your parents or grandparents reusing in unique ways ? I mean ALL the time. My family members are pros of the reuse movement. My grandpa would always save plastic planters from flowers and most of my family are infected with the ‘just incase’. Nothing too unique comes to mind but I’ve certainly been socialized in this mindset by those before me. Ross' grandfather with his vintage 1961 truck that he would bring to truck shows. Reusing to me is a double edged sword. I hold on to things that might have a use in the future; the random TV mount that I’ll probably never use, swaths of scrap wood, tripods with broken legs, old phone cases, etc etc. These things often come in super handy. When my wiring goes out on my bus, thank god I held onto that random float switch in the back corner of my garage that will solve the problem without having to buy a new one and it never was sent to the landfill; that is awesome. But, a lot of the things I hold onto never get that call up to the big leagues to be used perfectly in a problem solving manner. Often they just sit, which is okay. They are the ‘just incase’ after all. But, it does contribute to a lot of unnecessary clutter. Whenever I have moved my stuff to college or other places, there is so much of this ‘just incase’ stuff I’ve held onto that is sometimes a burden. That being said, I totally support to holding onto all the ‘just incase’ stuff – just be prepared for a little extra effort when it comes time to deal with it. 8. Do you have any notable stories about saving money on something because you bought it used instead of new? My dearest companion, my Sony A6300 mirrorless camera is a used warrior. I saved for about a year delivering pizza in my high school days to purchase my first big boy camera. I couldn’t even come close to affording it new so I fired up eBay and went searching for a deal. This thing has been the most reliable work horse ever. I saved $500/600+ just because someone before me took a few pictures with it. It’s been with me for almost a decade now and it’s chugging along like it just came off the factory floor. Used isn’t always worse as most people seem to think; point in case is my old Sony camera. Ross with his Sony A6300 camera during a Holy Cross shoot on how climate change is affecting alcoholic cider producers in New England. Also, my dad held onto lots of foam insulation board...a total ‘just incase.’ Well, long story short, we built an 18’ wooden motorboat during Covid and guess what we used for floatation foam?? We went rummaging through that saved foam board from the ‘just incase’ stash. It worked perfect and saved us a ton of money. The wooden motorboat that Ross and his dad built. Stay tuned for his next project with this! 9. Have you ever taken anything out of the recycling bin or trash to reuse somehow or maybe found something on the side of the road? Yup. All the time. I live pretty close to where I went to college. Taking advantage of this geographical advantage and the gross over consumption habits of college students, after move-out each May, I would walk the halls to ‘poach’ any cool stuff that people couldn’t fit in their cars or simply left behind. Some notable acquisitions are a flatscreen TV, Rubbermaid folding table, some sweet speakers, a desk, etc etc. It’s incredible what people brush off to the landfill. The computer monitor I’m typing this on right now was a free special off the side of the road in a nearby neighborhood – still chugging strong!!! 10. And lastly, what’s the best thing that you ever got used and why? Got a photo? This army surplus tool kit. You’re looking at a serious tool kit here bought in surplus after the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. If you were to buy similar tools new this would cost an arm and a leg. My uncle gifted this to me for Christmas one year and I seriously use it almost every day when I’m home. Someone wrenching on stuff as often as me would be tempted to go down to Lowes and buy some shiny new stainless steel tools. This stuff however, despite its age, works like an absolute dream and is seriously the best gift I’ve ever gotten. The U.S. army’s surplus trash is another man’s treasure...USED FOR THE WIN. Ross' army surplus tool kit. This has (and will continue to be) put to great use. Here’s the video of the bus including: I. Exterior tour/history of the bus II. How to Drive/Shift the bus III. Interior RV Tour To follow along with Ross' building journey, and learn more about his bus check out his YouTube Channel. To order a One of a Kind REUSE! T-Shirt like Ross is wearing in his profile photo, head over to the STAY VOCAL One of a Kind Gallery. COMMENT SECTION BELOW

A Competitor for Clothing Sales? No. A Collaborator for Change. A few years ago, I was at one of the numerous vegan events where I sell my STAY VOCAL reuse clothing. In the corner of the room, I saw a massive display of various vegan and animal rights themed T-Shirts. While I was impressed and thought so many of the designs were really cool, I haven't bought new shirts since 2007. But with the wild array of retro 80s and 90s themes and slogans I aligned with, I couldn't just avoid the booth. As we were fellow vendors at numerous events, I got to be friendly with the woman behind the Vegan Power Co. booth, Alicia Perkins. Alicia would also stop by my booth and geek out at my vintage trading card magnets. And she would talk about how she loved the reuse mission and wanted to do more eco friendly things with her brand. That got me thinking. She wasn't just another vendor. What I've learned countless times is that when you're trying to make actual positive change in this world, don't let competition come into play. Collaboration is key. That's why over the past few years, Alicia and I have teamed up for rescue bandanas for animals, 1 of a Kind REUSE! T-Shirts to benefit animals affected by the fires in Los Angeles, and now we're getting ready for a full on reuse cover up T-Shirt release. The more we work together, the more positive change we can actually create; for people, for our planet, and for animals. OK, here's Alicia. 1. You have a very specific style and color pallet with your designs. Could you talk about where you draw your inspiration from and why? I love 80s & 90s nostalgia - particularly the logos, typography & design aesthetic of that era! Just a fan of bold, saturated color in general. I like to "wear my personality out loud" haha!  Alicia found a perfect 1 of a Kind REUSE! Tee for her style, but her daughter has since taken it over. 2. Besides veganism and animal rights, you feature different messages in your designs. Could you talk about what inspires you to use your platform to start those conversations? I see ALL issues of oppression and liberation as interconnected. We can't stand for the rights of one marginalized group without seeking justice for all who suffer under oppression. Animal rights are often the gateway for folks to understand that the same systems of oppression that exist to commodify animal bodies & profit from their exploitation are the same systems that seek to limit rights of women, POC, queer and trans folks, disabled people, the poor, etc etc. We are united in this way and we can't talk about liberation for one without liberation for all. We all have a responsibility to use whatever platform we have to speak out against injustices of all kinds. Otherwise we are just willing participants in an ethically bankrupt charade of capitalism. One of Alicia's more self-explanatory shirts. 3. OK. I can't not ask you a question about food. I know that we both love traveling and visiting restaurants. We also have both spent a lot of time on the east and west coasts, where you live now. So, here's a hyper specific question about food. What's a restaurant that you've visited who does a good job at cutting down on waste and how? I always gravitate towards places that take a more farm-to-table approach and tailor their menus to what is more local & seasonally available. It's fresher, more delicious, more cost-efficient and of course, eating local (and vegan) cuts back on transportation emissions & other waste associated with importing all your ingredients. My #1 life-changing experience of this though was just recently in Iceland at a place called Fri∂heimar tomato farm. It's a family owned and operated farm that harnesses geothermal heat in greenhouses to grow tomatoes and other produce year round. Guests learn about their innovations in sustainability while dining on a tomato-centric food and drink menu amongst the tomato plants!  Alicia inside one of the greenhouses at Fri∂heimar tomato farm and one of the dishes they prepare. 4. So, while I'm certainly a solutions guy, we do have to address the problems. Where do you see the most waste in your daily life? As a small business vendor I witness first-hand the amount of waste created at vegan festivals and street markets. Some festival organizations do a better job of mitigating this than others, but we all, vendors and patrons alike, myself included, can do a LOT better when it comes to reducing single use items and better "planning ahead" when it comes to circumventing opportunities for waste. For example, I've cultivated habits of bringing my reusable bottles/coffee cup/metal straw/reusable bags/etc most places I go, but just recently we had dinner together and it absolutely blew my mind that you brought a reusable container with you for leftovers! Like, you can DO THAT?! At a restaurant?! Why had this very simple step never occurred to me before? It was a very A-HA moment for me. I think a lot of unintentional waste is just like this. Sometimes the ways we can reduce waste aren't immediately obvious and it takes a "spark" from a more seasoned-reuser, haha. Then it just takes a little more planning and cultivating better habits over time.  An update to Alicia's booth is her "Be Kind Rewind Finds" rack of vintage and secondhand pieces. 5. In your personal experience, how do you think recycling has worked and NOT worked as a solution to waste? I'm not super educated on this but I was floored to recently find out that only a fraction of what we put in recycling bins actually gets recycled. So the concept of recycling can't be the "excuse" or catch-all for us to keep carrying on as we have, waste-wise.  6. How do you think the U.S. could step up the solutions to our waste problem? Have you seen or heard of anything anywhere else? Again, I'm not super well-versed in this area but I recently spent time in both the UK and Iceland and experienced how differently they handle consumption and waste. It is ingrained in their culture. For example, in Iceland there were almost zero single use items at all - everything is served on real cups and plates. But that also comes with a cultural expectation that you stop and take time to sit and enjoy your coffee, etc. It's SO unlike the American hustle culture, that creates single-use waste as a byproduct of this on-the-go mentality. Also portion sizes in Iceland and the UK are a lot more "realistic" so we found ourselves with less opportunity to waste, etc. This is just one example of the interplay of cultural differences with waste-reducing practices.  7. It's funny. I always tell people that reusing is nothing new. It’s been going on long before we were here. Do you have any memories of your parents or grandparents reusing in unique ways? Of course, they existed long before fast-fashion and this notion that everything was disposable. You actually mended clothes that had holes or tears! Repaired shoes whose soles had broken. Tailored clothes that didn't fit. These are almost lost practices. Also, every jar and container was reused for storage of other food or items. This was before "Tupperware parties" and plastic containers made for the sole purpose of storage really caught on. Everything really shifted with my parents' (boomer) generation with the rise of all of these convenience-oriented products and practices. As a result, our generation was raised with a different, more wasteful mindset. A lot of my adult life has been about questioning and undoing some of these bad habits that until recently we just blindly accepted as the way our parents did things.  One of Alicia's favorite repurposed items - a vintage bike basket mounted in the bathroom for extra storage. 8. Do you have any notable stories about saving money on something because you bought it used instead of new? Absolutely. When I became a parent, it really hit home how temporary some of our needs for certain "stuff" are and nothing drives that point home more than a fast growing baby, haha! How silly to keep buying new clothing that they will outgrow in a few weeks or months. And all the books, toys, and gear that is needed for one stage of a child's development but then quickly bypassed. I really discovered the incredible value of hand-me-downs, buying from kids-specific second-hand shops & utilizing amazing local communities like Buy Nothing groups.  9. Have you ever taken anything out of the recycling bin or trash to reuse somehow or maybe found something on the side of the road? Absolutely. Some of my favorite furniture & decor items were road-side treasure, haha! We also joke that when our daughter was young, she never needed toys just random junk from the recycling bin that she would repurpose for art supplies and building creations. It's no surprise that she is a HUGE fan of the Box Truck film and your work, Alex. I have a lot of hope for this generation of kiddos.  Some of Alicia's favorite roadside finds: the red storage unit and vintage Halloween decor. With her love for all things spooky, Alicia of course leaves those up year-round. 10. And lastly, what’s the best thing that you ever got used and why? Got a photo? I have a fire-engine red refurbished 1960s tanker desk in my office. I'm using it right now as I write this, haha! Alicia's 1960s metal tanker desk in her office. Notice any vintage trading card magnets? To learn more about Alicia and her brand, check out the Vegan Power Co. website. To order one of the bandanas like Alicia is holiding in her profile photo, head over to the STAY VOCAL shop. Stay Tuned! Alicia and I have another STAY VOCAL collaboration coming real soon... COMMENT SECTION BELOW

Today, I’m launching a new interview series. And the interviews will show people how reusing is effective, easy and fun. To kick off the series, here is my interview with Lyndsay Dean, AKA The Vegan Potter.

Paving a Plastic-Free Green Road on Cape Cod When a friend of mine told me that someone nearby on Cape Cod had a mobile refillery inside an old mini-school bus, I knew that we had to meet. And since first meeting Jess Georges in 2019, we've not only become good friends, but collaborators as well. When it comes to reuse, Jess is someone who truly gets it. She and I have teamed up on multiple shirts, patches and a lot more. Because as you'll see, Jess sees her role as an educator too. 1. So, you run a shop called Green Road Refill. For those who have not had the pleasure of visiting your shop, tell us about it. Green Road Refill’s brick and mortar shop is nestled into the heart of Brewster on Cape Cod. Our little shop is dedicated to reducing our communities plastic footprint, while also supporting mostly woman owned small businesses. In addition to refilling over 40 plant based products, we offer locally made and fair trade gifts and refillable soy candles too! Our shop brings positivity and opportunity to take action in reducing waste. Jess and her original mobile refillery, Bettie Bus 2. What was your inspiration for starting the shop? I launched Green road Refill in the Spring of 2018 out of an old school bus that I found on Craigslist. The idea came to me in a dream. I have always had some anxiety over the state of our planet and in the dream, I had created a place where customers and I could take action to improve things. Bettie Bus was painted bright Green and inside was inspired by the Lorax with a Truffula Tree mural above the dash and my favorite quote from the book, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing’s going to get better. It's not.” We had to retire Bettie during Covid and built Sally Sud Shed on top of an old boat trailer we had in our driveway. In 2021, we opened the shop, but Sally and I still travel around June-December to festivals and farmers markets around the Cape spreading that Lorax Message. Sally Sud Shed in action 3. Which benefits of reuse do you think your customers enjoy the most? It’s all about the bottles baby! Our customers bring in all sorts. We love to see dish soap coming out of a sriracha bottle. Whether it’s a mason jar or your old shampoo tube, as long it can hold liquid, it works for us! Refillers “tack a cap” (colorful, un-recyclable caps like the ones you find on milk jugs) onto a cork board for each bottle reused and then when that’s full I get up on a ladder and tack them into our drop ceiling. It’s getting pretty groovy up there! 4. So, while I'm certainly a solutions guy, we do have to address the problems. Where do you see the most waste in your daily life? I hate grocery shopping. That's where I see the most waste. I have the benefit of going to a couple of farmers markets a week, but even there, organic vegetables can be packaged in plastic. I sell reusable produce bags and I’m always trying to push those. I am excited that we have our first refillable food market right down the road from us in Dennis where I get a lot of my food.  I have even partnered with the owner Meghann of the Glass Jar Market and we have a little Green Road Refill section in her beautiful store. A look at Green Road Refill. Note the caps on the ceiling! 5. In your personal experience, how do you think recycling has worked and NOT worked as a solution to waste? Oh man, recycling is so hard. I have done a lot of research and I am still confused and feel lied to. My customers are always asking me questions about it and unfortunately I don’t have many answers. I know that we have all been “wish-cycling “ for decades and that it has never been the solution to waste. The reduce, reuse, recycle slogan really needs to be changed - my first T- Shirt with STAY VOCAL was all about that. The only recycle that I feel is true would be the up-cycle of recycle. Above our shop door is the phrase, "Progress over Perfection." We try to have hope. I bring what plastic my family can’t reuse to the dump, throw it down the chute labeled, "# 1-7" and hope for the best. 6. How do you think the U.S. could step up the solutions to our waste problem? Have you seen or heard of anything anywhere else? I am inspired by local municipal bans and restrictions. It’s not easy convincing our neighbors that they should give up single use bottled water and plastic take out containers, but it’s a start. National organizations like Beyond Plastics have supported national legislation as well. The Break free from Plastic Pollution Acts proposed to congress almost every year haven’t to be even brought to the floor for discussion. At this time the responsibility has really been put on the consumer and not on the corporations - where it should be. Me, Nancy Downes from Oceana and Jess. This was at an event that Jess hosted at her shop to support Massachusetts legislation to reduce the state's plastic footprint. 7. Do you have any notable stories about saving money on something because you bought it used instead of new? I have kids; 10 and 19 years old It’s been hard being a low waste parent. Our culture doesn’t naturally nurture with less and I have been the Debbie Downer of our family. Whether it’s no balloons at parties or trying to keep them from consuming trends like fidget toys or everything else that is marketed to them. I will say that I have stuck in there, setting the example, making them ask, "What will happen to this when I'm done with it?" My proudest victory which saves us all a whole lot of money is thrifting. We have a bunch of great places on the cape and we do it as a family: back to school, changing of seasons, etc. It’s fun to give them a budget and see what they can do with it. 8. Have you ever taken anything out of the recycling bin or trash to reuse somehow or maybe found something on the side of the road? All of the time! When I lived in New York and Philadelphia, we would make garbage night into a night out. I have always lived with artists and man did we find some cool stuff. I would say my vintage aluminum Christmas Tree was a favorite! To this day I am reaching into trash to pick things out, like bottles I can use at the shop or something that I can do something crafty with. (I do some upcycled art preschool programming). I have no shame reaching in. 9. And lastly, what’s the best thing that you ever got used and why? Got a photo? Well, while I am sitting here in the shop and I’m looking around, almost everything is reused. I'd have to say these antique shutters that you gave me and my husband and I built into shelves for our Green Road Refill goodies are pretty great! I saved these 200+ year old shutters from the landfill. Jess and her husband, Justin, turned into them into a great display unit. To learn more about Jess's work and visit her shop on Cape Cod, you can follow the Green Road here. To make custom reuse T-Shirts like Jess is wearing in her profile photo, you can learn more about STAY VOCAL collaboratorions here.