YOU CAN UPCYCLE

PLASTICS, POLYMERS & SYNTHETICS

ORGANIC & FOOD WASTE

METAL & GLASS

Upcycling means the act of taking waste materials and turning them into beautiful, valuable and/or necessary products that people can use to survive and thrive. These waste materials would otherwise persist in and pollute the environment, be landfilled, incinerated or sent to be downcycled in factories in Asia; all methods of nocicycling – managing and cycling waste materials in a way that produces harm.

The majority of things that are thrown into trash and recycling bins can be re-purposed in other ways to draw out their usefulness, conserve the environment, and provide other beneficial long-term functions. Any given waste item is made up of biological nutrients (organic materials), technological nutrients (synthetic materials)º, or a combination of the both. The latter combinations are referred to as monstrous hybrids, because it is difficult to separate their natural and synthetic elements.

Organic materials can be composted to make new topsoil in biological cycles. Plastic materials, although toxic to the environment, can be utilized for their insulating properties in technological cycles of building. Metal and glass, although of different compositions and qualities, are grouped here as they can both be utilized in technological cycles of energy production and passive heating.

References:

ºCradle 2 Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by Michael Braungart