Recycle It Yourself

The team of Jack Schmidling and Marilyn Schenk (creators of the excellent Backyard Safari) are proof positive that you can be a home video enthusiast and still make professional videos. The requirements are basic: know your subject and know the elements of writing, directing, and editing a video. Schmidling and Schenk meet both requirements admirably. In Recycle It Yourself, viewers learn how to recycle old newspapers into a number of useful and decorative items: postcards, a snowman, beverage holders, a necklace, Christmas ornaments, boards, a bookcase, and, of course, recycled paper. The tools are simple: a bucket, a ladle (or a kitchen blender), a rolling pin, some towels, and a little elbow grease. The producers are not advocating that everyone recycle all of their paper products and save trees. They tap rather than beat the environmental drum--showing viewers how they can make some fun projects, and incidentally save a few trees in the process. In addition to the how-to aspects, there's an interesting tour of the Chicago Paperboard Company to show viewers how the recycling process takes place on a large scale. Not only would this program be of interest to general patrons, it would be worth its weight in gold at the library come science fair project time. Highly recommended. (See THE CLEVER CLEAVER BROTHERS IN THE CHOLESTEROL ZONE for availability.)