It has been said that “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
Los Altos has an extremely active, accomplished arts community and a forgetful group of kids and adults who leave their water bottles, caps, jackets, sweatshirts, grocery recycling bags and other assorted items around town.
Why not mix “Fine Art” and “Found Stuff” in the first Los Altos Discard Art Show? I’ll leave it up to our local art aficionados to select the categories of creativity.
I do have a few suggestions.
• Water Bottle Behemoth. Time for the “Tallest Water Bottle” sculpture in California? Just think about the height if all the water bottles left all over town were creatively stacked to the sky. Designer water bottles will go to parched communities throughout California, along with any H2O that is still residing in the bottles (after purification) donated to Los Altos lawns that have been browned by homeowners conserving this most valuable resource.
This could be a joint effort between our local schools and the California Water Board.
• One Big Bag. If we are supposed to be recycling, why would anyone need 30 recycled bags? OK, are you laughing now? Take a look in your trunk and count out the number you have.
Just think about the largest grocery recycling bag in which all the extra bags could go in one gigantic bag and recycled into thousands of smaller bags.
This would clearly be an annual event.
• Found Footwear Fiesta. As you spend time watching your young athletes on the playing fields around Los Altos, you will see a number of solo sneakers looking for their right or left partner. This is the perfect opportunity to play the match game at an upcoming event.
All you need is the right size to create a new footwear fashion statement of mix and matchers.
• Late Lunch. Another missing-in-action item that parents deal with every day is the wayward lunch box. After thinking this one through, I’ve decided that in the interest of not tweaking weak stomachs with strong odors, this one will just go into the garbage.
Andy Dolich, a Los Altos resident, owns the sports consultancy Dolich & Associates.
