Forks are turned into coat hooks.
We have come through generations where clothes, furniture and accessories were deemed "pre-loved" and repaired or handed down to others who could put them to good use.
Some of those items were even remade into other useful things.
Somewhere along the line, this act of generosity has slowed, or simply stopped, as our lives became busier - or it became just too hard.
I'm of an era where we exchanged our empty glass milk bottles for full ones, definitely recycling there.
Cloth nappies were washed and reused. Disposable nappies were just coming on to the market and the thought of wrapping up human waste in plastic and putting it out with your rubbish rather revolted me, so I think I only ever bought one bag and that was enough.
Where we could fund raise by collecting bottles and aluminium cans that served two purposes, kids were keen to collect bottles and cans for money and we didn't have unsightly bottles and cans being dumped everywhere. It was just something that was done. But then that all stopped and it became easier to send it all off to the landfill without even sorting out what could be reused.
We have two sides to our dumping situation where unwanted items just end up in a huge pit and get smashed and crushed then sent off to the land fill. Some of these items will take years if ever to breakdown completely. The other side to our dumps are the recycling depots and green waste encouraging people sort their rubbish. Technology has changed over the years allowing unwanted plastics and papers to be made into other useful items. But at what cost are we recycling these old items and saving our planet? Is the recycling of items into new products even more toxic for our environment and once the "new" item has passed its use by date where does it then go?
The "upcycling" concept was born in 1996 by German environmentalist Gunter Pauli. He is an entrepreneur and lecturer in culture, science, polities, sustainability innovation and the environment. Pauli is also an accomplished author having written Upcycling in 1997 among his many other books on sustainable living. Upcycling is the re-use of old or discarded materials creating new useable products. It doesn't involve breaking down existing products but reusing and putting into new uses.
We all know that saying "one man's trash is another man's treasure".
In developing countries, this concept is often a necessity in order to survive, however in Western countries it has become fashionable to buy up often overpriced second-hand materials and transform them into luxury items with huge price tags. I recently saw a designer from America where the "scouts" looked for old car chassis to make furniture from. Every item was taken from scrapyards and taken back to their workshop where someone put the pieces together to make a one-off sofa targeted for exclusive apartment living. Upcyclers are using their environment credentials to resell their wares.
But bearing in mind the true term upcycling is not breaking down the products but reusing them. There is a difference. We have all seen such items on the internet, vintage suitcases made into pet beds, bathtubs made into indoor and outdoor sofas and so on. Upcycling has created an urge for people to be more creative in the way of embellishment or paint finish on furniture. This is something we have all seen in the past with the like of folk art but now often new techniques are being introduced, in laser cutting overlays to give furniture a new lease of life. Products for the open market tend to be innovative and styles using good second-hand furniture.
Upcycling is not only drawing out people's creativity but it is also creating job opportunities for people.
So is it here to stay? It some respects it has always been done but now we are looking at why we should upcycle instead of just throwing something into the landfill. As technology changes and products are manufactured with the environment in mind as a whole then maybe there will no longer be a need for upcycling. But we have a long way to go before all raw materials and product that we manufacture can be reused in its complete form or remanufactured into something completely new and usable without a huge impact on the environment. If you have any questions about issues discussed or product supply give me a call on 0276023298 or drop me a line on terry@terrylobb.com www.terrylobb.com