Out of the Dumps(ter)  

Most people have some fun with garbage when they’re kids, dabble in it in high school, and forget about the whole thing by the time they’ve grown up. After all, who has time to play around with old cartons? Well… this lady in Yerushalayim, actually. She may be a grandmother, but transforming old things into new creations is something she does every day.

Who: Tova Paneeri

What: Creates all sorts of things out of old, discarded items

Where: Mekor Baruch, Yerushalayim

When you walk down the street in Tova Paneeri’s neighborhood, the street feels different than anywhere else in Yerushalayim. That’s because all over the neighborhood are birds, butterflies, flowers, and animals. But not the living kind — here, the wildlife is made out of old bottles, containers, even shoes and fabrics. Tova Paneeri is the mastermind behind these projects.

It all started when she saw that you could make flowers out of old soda bottles. If you cut off the bottom and melted them, the bottom of the bottle looks just like the delicate petals of a flower. And so Tova began to collect soda bottles and transform them into flowers. With a little help from some waterproof paint and a few other supplies, Tova soon had a beautiful collection of big plastic flowers. She showed them to her neighbors who, of course, loved the unusual and pretty design. Tova began to create beautiful things out of junk and gift them to her friends and neighbors. Soon those neighbors started bringing old things to Tova for her to transform. Plastic bottles, sure, but also old shoes and newspapers and blankets. And just like that, a hobby was born.