For questions about Trashmagination, please email trashmagination@gmail.com.

My name is Carla Brown and I host the podcast Trashmagination about the creative reuse of recycled materials. I have been making items from recycled materials since I was a teenager. It started because I wanted to make items in my high school art class that looked different from the other students. But I became really interested in the possibilities when I visited a garbage-free community in British Columbia called Hornby Island.

View my favorite creative reuse designs from my lifetime of experiments on the My Projects page.

My goal for the Trashmagination podcast is to be a creative reuse pep talk. I want to help people who are on a journey to zero waste. It takes time to learn how to live in a way that produces less trash. I am on that journey myself! So my hope is that we can make beautiful and useful items from the trash that is being produced.

A lot of the content focuses on what artists have made from recycled materials. I share their stories so widen our perspectives on what is possible. But I also share ideas for smaller projects many people can do without having any background in art.

Where does the word “Trashmagination” come from?

I came up with the term “trashmagination” when I heard the quote “Trash is the failure of imagination,” from Aaron Kramer from Urban Objects. It summarizes my belief that we can solve a lot of challenges with imagination.

What else is fun to know about me?

• I perform in a Japanese drumming or taiko group called Nen Daiko. It’s my other happy place when I’m not making items from recycled materials. You can hear about how taiko and Trashmagination are connected in episode 12 of the Trashmagination podcast.
• I am Canadian and American. I grew up in provinces across Canada, and moved to the United States (specifically Virginia) in 1998. I was born in Newfoundland and most of my family now lives in Nova Scotia, so that’s why you’ll hear a lot about rug hooking which is a traditional craft from that province.
• I have kept a gratitude box since 2014 where I write down why I am grateful every day.

Please subscribe to the Trashmagination podcast wherever you listen to podcast – or you can listen right here at this website! Share your favorite parts with your friends and family. Let me know what trash or recycling items are challenging in your life, and I can research it for a future episode.