D.C.: Designed to Recycle

Designed to Recycle is a new public art collaboration between the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH) and the D.C. Department of Public Works. The program’s aim is to turn recycling trucks into mobile canvases highlighting the importance of mitigating waste and protecting the environment. In 2015, the two city agencies organized a juried competition and selected nine designs submitted by D.C. based artists. The agencies worked with local students to develop the motif of the 10th truck transformed through the project. Each commissioned artwork was printed on vinyl that was wrapped on the trucks. The pieces vary in style and medium—artists used oil, acrylic, ink, spray paint, collage and other media—but all are personal paeans to the value of reducing, reusing and recycling. They also are attractive new images supplanting assumptions about sanitation vehicles and surprising residents with unexpected encounters with color and creativity. The mobile canvases will travel the city for up to three years. Images of each one are available on DCCAH’s website, along with the stories behind the work in the words of the creators. Find out more from DCCAH Public Art Program Manager Tonya Jordan.