The Up And Up to Upcycle

Posted by Greenbee on November 12, 2009

I learned a new term one that is not in our dictionaries but should be.  It is upcycle or upcycling, which is the taking of waste material and making a new and useful of it.  Upcycling leads to less material being thrown away and the new end result did not take any new resources to be made.  I had not thought of this before but upcycling is everywhere I just did not know it had a term and just how big it is getting.

Many of us have seen upcycling in some form in the Art community a form of this upcycle is used in Found Art.  Found Art, is basically the creation of art from objects we find in our everyday lives.  I recall an exhibit where a toilet was placed in the center of a white room and that was it.  Today upcycling has grown and people are using, wearing, displaying all the new materials and objects created from all the various forms of upcycling.

Upcycling can even help you recycling things that or normally non-recycling.  Heidi Hooper is a woman who takes her lint and even has people send her their lint and from the lint comes her art.   Over on Etsy.com you can find creations by PopTopLady who makes handbags and more from soda can Pop Tops.  Not only is upcycling a green movement but it can also be a lucrative one.

Currently I own a purse made of old Jeans, a handbag made from men’s silk ties, and a CD case made of an old Hawaii licence plate!  Not sure if the licence plate is legal, should you return those to the state? LOL oh well…  I have had these for a while and never thought I had bought it for a good purpose, I bought them because they were neat.  I didn’t have the environment on mind when making any of those purchases.  Upcycling has indirectly made thousands of consumers a bit greener without their knowledge of it happening and that is great!   I truly admire those who upcycle as I would have never thought hey why not take my old jeans and make a purse of it or hubby don’t throw that tie out I am going to make a handbag!

Two form of simple upcycling you can do are:

1. One of the oldest forms and we do it all the time are Kids Crafts!  Remember taking the old milk cartons and toilet paper rolls to school.  Well why not do these at home!  I know many of you are and do it all the time but for others when doing crafts you don’t always have to run out to the craft store you got all your material at home
2. T Shirt Rugs!  OMG these are the craziest things.  You buy a simple mat and cut up your old t-shirts or towels and tie them into knots up and down the mesh mat and you got a rug.  These things sell for over 100 usd retail and from what I see they are so simple to make.  I have not yet made one but I am sure going to try so video soon to follow.

This gets my creative juices flowing and I hope yours too!