Editor’s Note: Day 8 coverage of the Utah Arts Festival continues with two features, one about some festival notes of interest concerning eco-friendly art and sustainability. The second posted above is about Samba Fogo, one of the festival’s most popular entertaining fixtures of recent years. Tomorrow’s coverage moves into various awards for artists, films, and literary activities including the winners of the Art Attack 5K.

DID YOU KNOW? Calculate your personal impact at the eARTh Team Booth to see how much carbon dioxide you produce each year and learn how you can reduce your carbon emissions.

No doubt, the environment and its sustainability are part and parcel of this year’s Utah Arts Festival. Among the newest workshops drawing a lot of attention, more than 120 in the first day and a half of its offering, is the making of handbags, satchels, wallets, and tote bags from reclaimed billboard and vinyl material.

The 175-member Salt Lake City chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) is offering the hour-long workshop – RE: DESIGN – four times a day, which has especially drawn a large number of children and teenagers. “It’s easy and no special or previous design experience is needed,” says Dallas Graham, AIGA board member. “Our members will help with tips about design, layout and color and we even provide the templates. At the end of the workshop, you can have a one-of-a-kind bag accessory.”

At $10, the workshop value provides a bundle of worthwhile hands-on activities that emphasize not only the good principles of smart design but also of the impact of an individual’s creative resourcefulness when it comes to producing a high-quality functional and aesthetically appealing item from recycled materials. Visitors also can purchase vinyl bags made by AIGA members at the organization’s booth near the festival stage.

And, local AIGA members have crafted carefully their mission to be as environmentally responsible as possible. First, they ensured all of the non-biodegradable billboard materials came from Utah after deciding not to exercise the option of getting it from China, according to Camille Thorpe, another AIGA board member.

Graham explains the material – enough for at least 250 bags – was donated and AIGA paid to clean it so it could be used. The billboard materials work well, he says, because AIGA professionals can demonstrate easily how portions of particular graphic elements such as large letters, tool lines, logos, and shapes can be used to create artistically appealing designs.

Workshops run each day at 1:30, 3, 5, and 7 p.m. For more information, see here.

On a larger scale, there are several environmentally friendly measures that have gained a solid foothold at the festival. Staff and volunteers are being especially vigilant about reducing the volume of waste that would end up at a landfill and ensuring that recyclable plastic, cardboard, aluminum, paper, and glass are being processed within the state, according to Jill Fletcher, who oversees the festival’s eARTh team.

“We’re even sending out the vegetable oil used at the food booths to a local business that converts it into bio-diesel,” she adds. The four-day event resulted last year in 11 tons of garbage with four tons being recycled, especially in glass and cardboard. Food waste also is composted. Another area that saw some savings was in eliminating the use of plastic bags in disposal bins which Fletcher estimates to be nearly $4,000.

“We’re trying to be as alert as possible in making a smaller environmental footprint,” she explains. For example, nearly 20 volunteers are stationed throughout the festival grounds just for the purpose of helping visitors decide which bins they should use for disposing their plates, cups, and paper.

Festival organizers also have established a VIB (very important bicyclist) entrance for visitors who can use the bike valet service and get a $3 discount on their festival admission. Last year, nearly 1,000 used the service and the numbers on the first two days of this year’s festival are keeping pace with the 2008 total. In fact, today will likely be the heaviest use of the bike valet lot. Last year, almost a third of the bicyclists who used the valet service came on Saturday during the festival.