Below are the 2023 Waste to Art projects.
We're thrilled to announce the 2023 Waste to Art winners:
1 “Plastiquarium” by Valentina Rozenson and Patti Mallani
2 “Ward Waste to Water Wonder” By Danielle Chammas and daughters
3 “New Beginnings: Waste Not Wasted” by Meghan Sharron
Projects
The projects are listed in no specific order.
Contrast
Contrast is a project that began at the end of a shift while looking into the waste bin.
The bin fills quickly with contrast injectors for diagnostic CT exams.
Ours is one of many departments administering contrast for exams. The department discards hundreds of these injectors over a week.
Imagine how many we discard hospital-wide over a month? A year? In a small effort to disrupt the cycle of waste I collected an afternoon's worth of injectors, injecting myself into a solution space and brought them home in my backpack on my bike.
These injectors seemed like an appropriate vessel for plants.
Taking cuttings from plants I rescued, I created planters. There is a home for everything, even waste.
Opportunity exists all around us to take a moment and find a purpose for what, on impulse, might be considered waste.
ByErika Padilla-Morales
Wasted
Our project is called “WASTED” for the time we spend on social media then caring about our oceans, the earth, our water, our creator. The fish represents the endless amount of plastic in the water systems, the ocean in the background, surrounded by cut outs of objects that have invaded our waters and filled them with trash. Then came the evolution of the fish who has eaten the plastic and is now a wasted fish. My colleagues were joined together for this opportunity to showcase, our take on WASTED ART.
"My colleagues and I created a unique project using broken key fobs to represent a fish in the sea. Our project was designed to raise awareness about the issue of wasting resources and the impact it has on the environment.
By repurposing these broken key fobs, we hoped to show that even small actions can make a difference. We believe that by reusing and recycling materials, we can help to reduce our overall consumption of resources and minimize the amount of waste we produce.
We hope that our project inspires others to think creatively about how they can reduce their environmental impact. Together, we can create a more sustainable future for our planet.
We hope you enjoy our piece.
By Arriana Medina Ferraez, Thomas Ferraez, Chris Chan and Karla Brand
13 Long Healing Mandala
Our project was a creative and environmentally conscious initiative using antibiotic plastic caps to create a beautiful lotus flower mandala. On 13Long, we care for patients with illnesses requiring intravenous antibiotics. We collected the multi-colored plastic caps from the antibiotic bottles, often discarded after use and contributing to the growing plastic waste problem.
We arranged the caps in an intricate pattern to create this piece of art, the "13 Long Healing Mandala". The circular design of a mandala symbolizes the healing journey that our patients experience. The lotus was then created in the center, which symbolizes resiliency amid challenges. Together they represent the integration of physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of health and well-being, promoting a holistic approach to healing and resiliency.
The end result not only showcases our creativity but also promotes environmental awareness and recycling. Our project is a reminder of the importance of reducing, reusing, and recycling materials, especially plastic, to minimize waste and protect the environment. Furthermore, it showcases the plastic caps we used that contributed to our patients' healing journey.
By Cally Thalman, Joanna Cuanico, Katy Krauel, Roan Haines
Medical Wasteland
You have entered an alternate dimension where the years of medical waste has completely changed the environment from the leaching of hazardous waste, chemicals and ingestion of microplastics. This harmful waste has genetically altered all life. This is the product of evolution and toxic waste after the catastrophic “doomsday” event where waste became a part of life’s DNA. Plants lack vibrancy and scent, animals become hybrids of what they once were and the plastic they ingest. This new world is feeds and thrives on the trash from the landfill that lies beneath its surface. This alternate dimension serves as a warning to be mindful of our waste and the impact it has on our environment. We can be the guardians of our own world by protecting it from the harm of the waste we produce.
By Lauren Thayer
Ball & Chain
The 2022 National Diabetes Statistics from the Center of Disease Control (CDC) reports that more than 130 million adults are living with diabetes or prediabetes in the United States. According to UCSF’s Diabetes FAQ, about 30% or more of those with type 2 diabetes require insulin therapy.
My work reflects on just a fraction of the medical waste that can be generated in one month by an individual with diabetes requiring insulin therapy. I hope to bring awareness, through the means of art, to our reliance to this lifesaving yet high waste producing treatment. Imagine what the size of this “ball & chain” of waste would be for 39 million (30% of 130 million) adults in just one month.
By Tip Tilton
Ward Waste to Water Wonder
Zeina (7yo), Zoe (5yo), and Sami (3yo), with the help of their mother, had a goal of spreading joy by making a "huge beautiful swimming koi fish made totally out of hospital waste." The fins and whiskers were made from woven Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) forms with embellishment from the ear loops and nasal bridge wire of disposable masks. The scales were created from disposable medical masks. The face and tail were crafted from a combination of medical paper tape, medical biohazard bags, EKG rhythm strips, IV tubing, and sterile swabs. The backing was cut from a repurposed piece of discarded plywood and suspended with disposable hospital-grade breast pump tubing. We hope we succeeded in the goals of spreading joy, highlighting the some of the concerns around waste production, and creating wonder out of waste.
By Danielle Chammas
New Beginnings: Waste Not Wasted
As we cycle into the spring of 2023, the UCSF Nursing and Professional Development Team welcomes 67 new nurses into our New Nurse Residency Program across Pediatric and Adult Divisions. The transformation from a Clinical Nurse I to a Clinical Nurse II takes time, energy, and supplies for hands-on training. There is an environmental impact to what makes a nurse that we do not usually consider.
While there is harm in producing this waste, the process also contributes to the creation and sustenance of our profession. It enables us to provide quality care for patients and contribute to the improvement of our community. Our greatest hope is that the positive impact of each nurse we train will collectively outweigh the negative impact to our environment.
By Meghan Sharron
Still Plastic
I love Baker Beach, and always pick up plastic when I visit. This was a windy day in February, after a storm. The beach was full of driftwood, Styrofoam, and these many plastic treasures. I took one quick picture of the plastic I’d collected, and it looked like art to me. Thank you for the motivation to make this painting from the photo: Still Plastic. It’s a still life, but plastic is still with us, for life.
By Jessica Gibbs
A New Day, a New Way
For both the peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis patients, a tremendous amount of waste is generated with every treatment. So many of our patients begin dialysis feeling tired, weak, and sick, but after starting dialysis they feel renewed with improved energy, appetite, and spirit. Upon kidney transplant, a peritoneal dialysis patient brought 14 boxes of unused dialysate solution to the unit. As we cannot use this solution, we had to dump it all down the drain which generated a pile of yellow, green, and red pull rings. From this pile and the change we see in patients after beginning dialysis, a vision for A New Day, a New Way was born.
This piece is created entirely of waste products except for the adhesive used to keep it together and the green watercolor. A piece of cardboard from the box of dialysate solution created the initial backboard and then is covered by the chux used in the “on/off” kits with hemodailysis patients. The tree trunk is created from the protective packaging of peritoneal dialysis supplies during shipping. The yellow sun uses the yellow cap from a fluid transfer top along with the yellow dialysate pull rings. The dialysis staff collected the colorful tops of medication vials and used-but-clean alcohol swabs for the project. Additional pull rings from peritoneal dialysis supplies were gathered during patient training sessions to be the foundation for the medication vial flowers. The birds are made from a piece of the packing from individually wrapped peritoneal dialysis caps. Together these products created A New Day, a New Way.
By the Pediatric Dialysis Unit staff
CP2025 The Printer Robot
Lacking multifunction functionality, CP2025 has become broken surplus, and only has a future of being destroyed as eWaste or being buried in landfill. Transforming into a robot, CP2025 now lives on as a sustainability conversation piece – focusing attention to similar underused, broken, or surplus single-function printers – and the need instead to make use of centrally placed, shared larger multifunction devices across the University when possible. CP2025 can only succeed with your support, each time you decide to print.
By Mario Carmona
Plastiquarium
We are creating a representation of a beautiful, diverse, and wondrous underwater world using medical waste that we produce on units (PACU) as our materials.
In this project we want to show the utility of objects that are considered to be useless waste and how by stepping out if this “use and discard" paradigm and into a creative “everything is useful” mindset, beautiful art is born!
By Valentina Rozenso and Patty Malladi
Waste Warriors
This is a Golden State Warriors-inspired mural that is made solely with anesthesia medication vial caps. The Anesthesia team has been collecting thousands of those colorful vial caps in the past month and turned them into a tribute of our beloved basketball team and the bay.
The vibrant yellow is in great contract with the deep royal blue. The different shades of blue outline the iconic bay bridge and the scintillating bay lights connecting the east and the west. The clear sky with some clouds, and the flowers below depict the beautiful super bloom that graced upon us this season.
We’re so excited that the Warriors are in the NBA playoff once again! Best of luck to them and hope they make a splash in the deep playoff run. Go Warriors!
By the UCSF Anesthesia Department
An Ode to the Speculum
As an Obstetrician and Gynecologist & a current research fellow at SF VAMC pursuing her masters in clinical research at UCSF, my passion for women's health extends beyond my medical training. My art serves as a conduit for change, illuminating the beauty and resilience of the female experience, while fostering a deeper understanding of women’s health. By merging my passion for medicine and art, I aim to create a powerful and uplifting dialogue that inspires, creates, and promotes understanding and empowerment among women.
By Vanessa Dorismond
Mask-tera Deliciosa
The COVID-19 pandemic led to a major increase in medical waste with a large proportion being disposable face masks from both healthcare workers and patients. During my clinical rotation as a student physical therapist, I wanted to give my used face masks a second life by utilizing it as my primary medium for paper mache. I chose to create a monstera leaf as a representation of the environmental toll of medical waste and how it can lead to decreasing microorganism diversity in the soil and ultimately poor quality of life for plants and the planet.
By Charlene-Mei Robles
Amazing
Following a 9 ½ hour surgery I awoke to learn my fractured pelvis is now held together with plates and screws. 13” of plates and screws. I gravitated to Orthopedics to build my project and was amazed at the beautiful colors that I had to work with. This is all considered Medical Waste as it is removed from patients when they no longer need them. I will be giving this art piece called “Amazing” to Dr. Urku Kandemir because he is the trauma surgeon that saved my life and is truly amazing!
By Kate Vanzanten
