Upcycling: What is it? 8 Kick Buttock Examples

In nature nothing is ever wasted. When a plant dies it decomposes and becomes the nutrients for new life. Upcycling mimics this natural process.

Upcycle  TerraCycle® definition: Using every aspect of waste as value… Typically a piece of waste can be seen as two things: the material it’s made from and the shape it is in. For example a chip bag is made from plastic and is in the form of a bag. If one were to upcycle a chip bag one would be leveraging both aspects and not destroying any part of it. While if one were to melt a chip bag into a plastic product it would be considered recycling vs. upcycling. terracycle.net/upcycling  TerraCycle ® upcycles and recycles traditionally non-recyclable waste (including drink pouches, chip bags, tooth brushes and many more) into a large variety of consumer products.

Upcycle  Wikipedia definition: The process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value…  Upcycling reduces the consumption of new raw materials when creating new products. Reducing the use of new raw materials can result in a reduction of energy usage, air pollution, water pollution and even greenhouse gas emissions… Upcycling is the opposite of downcycling, which is the other half of the recycling process. According to this concept, recycling, as we know it through our traditional waste management systems, would actually be considered downcycling. Downcycling involves converting materials and products into new materials of lesser quality. Most recycling involves converting or extracting useful materials from a product and creating a different product or material. – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upcycle

Upcycled Wrappers

Upcycled Cliff Bar Wrappers: Terracycle Cliff Bar Messenger Bag $14.99.

Upcycled Candy wrappers: Pochette - Coke Zero from Ecoist.com $49

Upcycled Drink Pouches

TerraCycle 3-ring Binder Pencil Case: $2.99.  Made from waste drink pouch material.

TerraCycle Large Messenger Bag – Honest Kids. Made from waste drink pouch material.

Upcycled pop tops

Masha Poptop Messenger Bag  $180 Escama Studio

‘Chica Rosa’ Pop Top Mini Clutch

Upcycled plastic bottles

Upcycled water bottle wall Recyclart

British school children build a greenhouse out of bottles / Grist

Upcycled seatbelts

Global Girlfriend recycled seatbelt handbag $38

Upcycled light bulbs

Spice rack by Annisa Fardan Nabila and Aulia Amanda Santoso via Inhabitat

upcycled light bulb vase via touchn2btouched.tumblr.com

Upcycled bottle caps

Athanassios Babalis designs objects from recycled bottle caps / Core77

Upcycled Beer Cans

Click here to see a surfboard made by upcycling beer cans here:

You Can Hang Ten on Artist Rich  Morrison’s Beer Can Surfboard / Inhabitat – Green Design Will Save the World

Upcycling in Art

Tom Dininger uses uses a variety of discarded materials to create many amazingly intricate pieces of exceptional artwork

An amazing story involving upcycling

MIT Fab Lab Helping Villagers Build DIY Wireless Internet Networks With Found Materials / Inhabitat – Green Design Will Save the World

Related articles

• One man’s rubbish is Terracycle’s bounty (money.cnn.com)
• You’re the Boss: Should Green Companies Work With Giant Companies? (boss.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Partnering With Companies That Sell Alcohol, Guns and Tobacco (boss.blogs.nytimes.com)