Upcycling – What is it and should we bother?
What is it?
Upcycling has been around for a while now, but is becoming an increasingly popular trend, and why not? It’s an awesome idea!
Wikipedia defines upcycling or ‘creative reuse’ as the process of transforming waste materials, useless or unwanted products into new materials of better quality.
Why should I bother?
There are so many great environmental reasons to recycle old items. It saves energy, conserves resources, reduces pollution and has some great economical and patriotic benefits such as creating new jobs. Plus up-cycled stuff looks great!
The US environmental Protection Agency has some handy tips on recycling your unwanted products and how to donate your used electronics.
Did you know?
According to the EPA, Americans generate 33 million tons of plastic per year, but only 9% of that is recycled (2013). So maybe we should all step up and do our part! Look out for products made from recycled plastic materials, so we can work on reducing that pretty alarming percentage.
Great gift ideas!
You can create all kinds of unique stuff from upcycled items, including gifts!
At Our Nation’s Creations we’ve just introduced these reclaimed wood signs, which make a perfect gift or look great around the home!
The best thing about creating upcycled items is that there will never be anyone else with the same thing! Like these wood signs, each piece of wood used is different, it has varying patterns, shades and design, because they are hand crafted.
Having something so individual and unique is increasingly rare these days!
There are so many ideas out there and best of all you could probably make most of them yourself, perhaps as a DIY family project for those rainy days! Here are a few ideas courtesy of Pinterest and Upcycle magazine.
Go on try it, give an old item a new lease of life! You’ll be doing your little bit for the planet and you never know, you might even enjoy it!