Trash is everywhere. It's not hard to find and it's not hard to make. Just step outside your door and you're bound to find a chip bag, plastic bag, or paper flier blowing in the wind. In the city, I call it 'urban tumbleweed.'

Often times, I see trash that's less buoyant. Discarded furniture, baby toys, shipping pallets. After a big rain, broken umbrellas abound. I just shake my head and walk on by, feeling helpless, unable to rescue these materials from their landfill-destined eternity.

Well, that's about to change.

After taking a permaculture certification course last year, I started seeing the pattern of trash outside of my home and the piles of trash I collected in my home (I have a hard time throwing things 'away.') as valuable resources. Just collecting these materials is not enough, of course. One needs the vision and skills to take these materials and turn them into something useful.

A shipping pallet becomes a compost bin. An umbrella becomes a chandelier (or a skirt, a la Replayground).
Perhaps a manufacturer can't find a use for their leftovers, scraps, samples. These can all be used to make products with value.

And so, with these thoughts in mind, the Library of Trash was born. Let’s take a tour, yes?

The plan of the Library of Trash was made entirely from repurposed and found materials.

The Library of Trash is a multifunctional space run by a multidisciplinary member cooperative. I am the generalist. My partners are gardeners, artists, crafters, builders, and cooks. We collaborate, we barter, we share knowledge with each other and the broader community.

In this space there is an experimental vegetable garden, a mini fruit orchard, four-season growing potential, a place to host events and classes, a place to create and experiment, and a place to keep materials for creating.
There is a strong foundation and purpose, yet the space adapts to meet the day’s given needs.
Passing by the Library of Trash you might be attracted by the living fence, yet detritus and pests will be repelled by it.

A street cart sells produce from our garden or prepared food from our kitchen in front of a window that displays our latest upcycling projects.

A covered bike rack stores our means of transport and distribution.

When you enter you are greeted by a member working at the mobile reception desk.

The member is crocheting a yoga mat bag out of plarn.

He directs you to the garden on the south side of the property to learn about biodynamic treatment of fruit trees. On your way out, you notice the living curtains which both keep the hot sun out in summer and filter the air indoors, while providing fresh oxygen to the building.

While waiting for class to begin at the picnic table on the deck, you can’t help but notice the greenhouse filled with citrus and other tropical produce. In winter, the greenhouse is heated by compost, and the greenhouse helps heat the building.

On the back of the greenhouse is a rainfed shower heated by the sun. The grey water from the shower trickle irrigates the vegetable garden.

Wastes from the garden and the fruit trees go to the compost. The compost in turn provides nutrients to the soil, and also heats the sink water in the restroom and kitchen.

The sink water, fed by the 2,000 gallon water storage units, goes to flush the toilets.
The toilets and the garbage disposal from the kitchen sink feed the biogas digester which provides cooking heat and heats the building in winter.

The kitchen serves as a demonstration facility for food preparation and preservation, as well as a lab for making and experimenting with beauty and cleaning products made from ingredients grown in our greenhouse and garden. These products are packaged in upcycled jars and bottles that our customers can return to refill.
When you finish your lesson in biodynamics, you go to the darkest corner of the property to learn about mushroom cultivation.

You love learning these new skills so much that you decide to stay all day and learn about upcycling glass bottles into vases and glassware. The materials for this class are sent down from the second floor via dumbwaiter.

You are so intrigued to see where these materials appeared from that you take the stairs to the second floor.

On this floor, you’re greeted by another member of the co-op. She gives you a tour of the trash library — materials amassed by members on dumpster diving missions or donated by community members.

Materials like old pipes, telephone wire, tin cans, and old silverware. Maybe you’re looking for a reclaimed window to make a cold frame or scrap wood from a gutted building to fashion a loom. And here are some scrap fabrics to weave a belt or plastic bags to weave some placemats. How about a decoupage or papier-mache project from junk mail and old catalogs?

You hear sounds of sewing and sawing so you ask to see where it’s coming from.

In the studio space, there’s a co-op member building a compost bin from wooden palettes collected from the curb for a nearby community garden. Another member is making cloth napkins from old dress shirts to sell at Sunday’s market being held on the roof.

The roof? You ask. Yes — do you want to see it?

And up you go to the top of the Library of Trash.

You take the stairs, but if you weren’t able-bodied, the elevator reaches the roof.

In front of you is an expanse of green — greenroofing that attracts native pollinators while keeping the building cool in summer. It also provides a sense of refuge in the urban landscape.

Solar panels add a redundant source of energy to the biogas digester — to power the elevator and any electric appliances.

You smell something baking and walk to the west side of the roof. Bread is baking in the solar oven. The flour was provided by a local grower of heirloom grains, exchanged for a wind turbine that our co-op made from old bicycle parts in order to power their mill.

You notice the dumbwaiter also reaches the roof. This makes it easier to bring materials to the roof for big events and market days.

The roof itself is a giant, 3,500 square foot surface for catching rainwater – enough, not subtracting greenroof absorption, to collect 2,100 gallons of water per one-inch rain event.
There is also a small shelter housing a bar for events that serves as rainwater catchment for rooftop use.

And there are skylights lighting the workspace below.

Wow, what a long day, you say.

And I turn to you and ask, want to stick around for a sunset rooftop yoga class?

As Bill Mollison and David Holmgren were inspired by others in forming the permaculture ethic, I was inspired by others practicing great sustainable feats. I owe thanks to: Build It Green! NYC, Rebuilders Source, Materials for the Arts, Brooklyn Skillshare and all the other repurposers, rebuilders, and upcyclers around the world. Thank you!