Reduce, Reuse, Recycle for a boat?

A group of University of Toledo students and a passionate professor took recycling to the next level this past summer by building a boat made entirely out of repurposed materials.

Initially, this was a printmaking class, but Arturo Rodriguez, an associate professor of art and overseer of this project, said it also involved a lot of sculptural aspects as well.

The class spent a lot of their time between the sculpture studios and printmaking. Rodriguez said a lot of the visual things on the boat are prints that the students made.

Jesse Quaintance, a third-year majoring in visual arts and one of the students involved, said he wasn’t aware of the tasks awaiting him, but Aaron Brandt, a fourth-year majoring in new media said he knew about the project, but wasn’t sure what the project entailed.

Having had another class with Rodriguez, Quaintance said he knew they would both get along well.

“It’s the most fun I’ve had taking a class,” Quaintance said.

The class was informed via email that this project meant to raise awareness on Toledo’s water problem.

By doing this project, Rodriguez said they can inform other people so they can spread the word and keep the chain going to try to be good stewards of our water resources.

Brandt said he was ignorant to the scale of the issue of Toledo’s water situation and how everything in the ecosystem is so closely linked together.

“We treat our water very badly,” said Rodriguez. “It’s a great resource and it’s underutilized.”

As a fisherman, Rodriguez said he loves water and believes it needs to be treated better.

“I grew up in Miami, so anything that was along the water was really valuable,” Rodriguez said.

The boat is made up of three 4 feet by 8 feet floating docks that are bolted together, three rain barrels under each of the sections, scrap metal, bicycles and other pieces of wood as well as the cloth with the prints on them.

To get it down to the river, they took the boat down in sections and then bolted it back together when they got to the water.

Although the class had just six weeks to complete the boat, they only had one mishap.

Rodriguez said the paddle wheels of the boat were too low on the water, causing the students to use too much force to drive the boat, so they had to raise the wheels up.

Rodriguez said the boat was surprisingly stable, even after attempts to purposely sink the boat.

All of the materials that made up the boat were repurposed and donated. Whatever items they needed that didn’t get donated were purchased from local salvage shops.

Quaintance said recycling is a necessity, not an option.

“We live with a finite number of resources and it’s imperative that we use them efficiently,” Quaintance said.

Brandt said he always tries to find new ways to reuse something rather than throwing it away.

Quaintance said he hoped that the class could create something that was relatively unified and could convey their intended message of recycling and the better treatment of Toledo’s water source.

“It was gratifying to be involved with something so big and important,” Quaintance said. “It felt good to do something to raise awareness about the water, which became a hot issue with the water shut off.”

Rodriguez saw a project similar to this one done before by an artist called Swoon, who made a boat and sailed it through the entire Mississippi River.

Rodriguez thought it would be a good idea to do it here, too.

“I thought, let’s make something to bring attention to the water,” Rodriguez said.

As a part of the class, Rodriguez brought in a few speakers including Jeffrey Miner, the department chair for biology at Bowling Green State University, who talked about all of the pollution problems with the water.

“It’s not just runoff from farmland, it’s a whole contingency of things that are threatening our water,” said Rodriguez. “From flushing meds down the toilet, to invasive species, to dumping garbage.”

Rodriguez and the class took the raft onto the water three times before they went on their maiden voyage on Aug. 1.

Rodriguez said that if there is an interest and other students want to do it then he would like to do something like this again.

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be a boat, but there are endless possibilities,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez and his class plan to showcase the boat at various art events including PARK(ing) day and the Main Event, as well as possibly using it for a homecoming float.