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recycling |
While
many of us have been recycling household products by
setting products in bins at the curb each week, only a
handful of us have considered upcycling household items
by bringing new life to old personal effects.
What
exactly is upcycling you ask? Some call upcycling
“salvage art”. Taking something that would otherwise be
thrown out and making it into something better is
basically all about upcycling. Reconstruction of an item
by revamping it and creating a new product is one way to
look at it. Heck, you can find an item in the dumpster
and take it home and fix it up, that is also recycling.
You could easily come up with a few considerations about
upcycling, and personal upcycling ideas by doing so.
But,
think about it. How cool would it be to take an old
sweater (that one you just don’t wear anymore, but have
an attachment too) and create a pillow out of it buy
upcycling the fabric?
Instead of dumping household products in the over
crowded landfills we have created all over the planet,
consider the alternative – upcycling. This eco-friendly
concept has been utilized for years and tears and well
years, but the importance of upcycling has taken the
spotlight by a cool trend as well as the fact that our
environment depends upon us doing our part to be
eco-minded. So many people have come up with really cool
upcycling ideas. Ask yourself what your ideas are.
For
instance, taking the concept of reusable shopping bags
into consideration, let’s look at reusable shopping
bags. Yup, you buy these bags at the register that cost
a buck right? You may even shop at the mall with
reusable shopping bags, but what about making your own
from old plastic bags or other upcycled materials? After
all, the majority of those bags you purchase at the
grocer are NOT made from recycled materials. Not to
mention all the chemicals that are used to screen print
their company logo and décor on them.
My
interest was peaked recently when I was at a friend’s
house and noticed she used old coffee tins to make
flower pots. This is a great upclying example and after
seeing those coffee tins my upcycling ideas became
inspiring enough to bring this topic to our Save With
Green Recycling Tips readers.
Giving new life to everyday household item that may be
tossed into the landfill is a smart and even chic thing
to do. Challenge yourself to take a few moments to audit
your garbage and to find even one product that can be
upcycled.
You
don’t even have to be a crafty person to upcycle items
around your home. There are quite a few online sites and
blogs that address tips for upcycling and repurposing
your everyday products.
Even
if the material you are throwing away is going into a
recycling bin, think about upcycling. The process
of recycling or downcycling if you will, breaks down
high-grade materials into lower-grade ones, by upcycling
you take worn out materials and repurpose them into
products of equal or bigger value. Upcycling has an
added advantage over recycling or donating because both
of those activities require energy usage. When you
donate clothing, that clothing is transported to a
distribution center and so on. Anything that requires
that much transportation can potentially use up more
fuel energy than it might be worth in the long run.
There
are businesses that will upcycle your items for you. For
example, you send the fabric or old clothing item to
them, it is returned to you as a cool new household
product such as a pillow or something else you want.
But, like donating clothing, this requires energy too. I
highly recommend checking out a upcycling blog or
website to see how you can do it on your own. You will
no doubt come across retailers on sites like Etsy that
are actual upcycling companies. Again, that is great
because the products are at least made exclusively from
recycled materials, the upcycling ideas are innovative
to say the least, but you wouldn’t send your materials
to them and create the whole energy wasting issue.
Even if you repurpose around the house it is at the very
least eco-friendly, but also a form of self-expression
and creativity that is good for you. The next time you
find yourself dragging the garage to the curb, think
about upcycling. Be inspired.
Author: Amy Wermuth
Searching for a
Recycling Center in your neck of the woods?
Visit
Earth911
to search by zip code
RECYCLING TIPS
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