So we are back to school. It’s a new year and a new semester.

Personally, my new year’s resolution was to help the world be more green and less wasteful. And to be honest, I feel like I have failed because we’ve been without a green post in over a month. I have so many eco-friendly ideas and blogs to post that they are piling up like a landfill in the back of my mind.

Speaking of landfills though, trash has become the topic of choice among the media. Everyone seems to be talking trash.

The New York Times’ blog, Freakonomics, recently did a study on trash called The Economics of Trash (the podcast can be downloaded or subscribed to at iTunes, via RSS feed or you can listen to it off of the website). The podcast starts off, as all great stories do, at sea but this sea chantey (minus the sailor-based melodic tune) starts off on a garbage barge. It goes into great detail on how the economics of trash, as well as the emotions involved in the business have created such a mess with the world.

With the mess of the world comes the beauty, well at least Salon.com has found beauty in garbage. In a slide show gallery called, Turning trash into visionary art, they exhibit a home made of beer cans in Houston, North Carolina’s houses made of bottles and sculptures made from architectural remnants that were salvaged in St. Louis. All the art shown was made from made from recyclables or trash and all are quite amazing.

But seeing all the art from trash inspired me to look into the way to make my garbage more artistically useful. Readymade.com put together a list of 2010’s best DIY (Do it yourself) projects called The Top 20 projects of 2010. They feature new uses for the old burnt out light bulb, the tacky tie that you’ll never wear and got for a Christmas present, empty coffee can light fixtures and even a old pipe bookcase. To me all these project look awesome and modern versus the pieces of garbage that they once were.

So with all the waste we’ve created over break why don’t we rethink our trash. After all it might be money, a business, art or even a new bookcase that you could be throwing out.