Idaho Falls business turns trash into treasure

From learning about recycling at the Idaho Falls Earth Day Celebration on Saturday , to actually doing it — one local business is turning trash into treasure.

Chique Lixo is an Idaho Falls business that takes items most people wouldn’t think twice about before throwing away and re-creates them into memorable keepsakes.

Junk mail, garbage, wrappers, even ticket stubs… Heidi Martoz said it’s all worth something.

“I think they really are little pieces of art,” said Martoz, owner of Chique Lixo.

For the last 10 years, Marotz has created one-of-a-kind cards with random material.

“There’s a plane ticket here…beads…old stamps that I’ve chopped up,” said Martoz. “This is off of another label.”

Statistics show Americans throw away around 161 million tons of waste each year… Which amounts to three pounds of garbage per person per day.

Heidi said most of that stuff could be recycled.

“When you view what we label as ‘trash’ as being something beautiful and maybe something that can be re-purposed, whether it’s a bottle or a piece of paper or something… It kind of shifts the whole way you view the world,” said Marotz.

Each card is handmade, printed on recycled paper, and personalized with things most wouldn’t consider “art.”

“It definitely has expanded my joy in the world and my belief that everything can be redeemed,” said Martoz.

You can find Chique Lixo cards in stores throughout Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Boise, and the rest of the state.

To look at some of her designs, visit www.chiquelixo.com