When I was growing up, milk came in clear glass bottles delivered early morning to our doorstep. Years later, we bought milk at the store in a boxy wax carton with a fold open spout. Now, in the name of sanitation and convenience, milk cartons have been “improved” with plastic safety milk pull-tabs. Now, thousands of these ubiquitous tabs are making their way to the landfill. It will take thousands of years for them to decompose and go away.
To draw attention to this blight, I created a bracelet by looping one loop inside the other and on around until the final one loops into the first one. People always take note of my unique jewelry, which allows me to talk about plastic and encourage action about everything, even about milk cartons.
During a recent trip to Tanzania, I visited a Masai village where the inquisitive fingers of an elder Masai woman touched my bright white bracelet trying to figure out what could be the source and the material of my unusual adornment. I asked our guide to explain that I had made the bracelet out of milk pull-tabs; that they were something that would otherwise be thrown away; and that I am an artist who uses recycled plastic in my creations. I was babbling so fast that probably neither she nor my translator understood a word of what I was saying.
When she expressed interest in my bracelet I was thrilled. She is also an expert craftsperson who makes elaborate bracelets and neck collars. With mutual respect as artisans, we made an exchange. I now wear one of her fine beaded bracelets and she now wears my milk-tab bracelet.
I imagine that when I am telling this story about my amazing experience with the elder Masai woman — she is telling someone about the crazy white woman who came into the village telling stories about recycling plastic? and milk cartons? I have to laugh, they subsist milk and blood from cows, might have never even seen a milk carton — so I was indeed crazy-talkin’.
In a gesture of appreciation of art and adornment, the Masai woman and I connected. ART held the moment — through beauty, we were able to speak when language just wouldn’t do.
