Via unconsumption:

Texas to get the first packaging-free grocery store in the U.S.

In.gredients, which is slated to open this fall in Austin, will sell loose and bulk items, including “local, organic meats, dairy, baking goods, cooking oils, spices, grains, seasonal produce — the whole spectrum.” Customers will need to bring reusable containers from home (or use the store’s compostable containers), and weigh them before filling with the products they want. 

In.gredients’ package-free, zero-waste retail concept, similar to that of Unpackaged in London, is a great business model. The benefits of precycling — avoiding wasteful packaging — and buying only the amounts you need of locally sourced products, creating less landfill and saving money in the process, are many. 

If you have friends in Austin, encourage them to support in.gredients. And let’s hope in.gredients will expand to other markets. [Hi, Houston next, please.]

No matter where you live, check it out: You can follow the company’s progress here (blog and Web site), here (Facebook), and here (Twitter).

Via unconsumption:

Twenty-year-old David Rocha dreams of one day becoming a professional violinist, but for now he plays for the community of Sao Miguel, a poor neighborhood outside Brazil’s largest city, Sao Paolo.

The violin he uses is fashioned out of old wood that he found at a garbage dump. The drawers of an old closet are now being used to play symphonies by Bach and Beethoven.

Rocha learned to make string instruments at a free workshop in his neighborhood’s social center.

With no money to buy good quality wood, Rocha began scavenging through the dumps near his home.

He has inspired other students to do the same.

Now, Rocha’s hand-made instruments are selling for up to $500 dollars and he says he feels honored to be able to help the environment by recycling trash into art.

(via Classical music made from garbage — CBS News)