Is there an old coffee can somewhere in your house or garage, holding tools, pens, or various items? Perhaps a mint tin in your purse to hold change? Chances are that you upcycle on the regular and don't even know it.
To better understand the value of upcycling, we should take a look at something we are all familiar with -- recycling.
Recycling is a very important part of modern waste management. We're proud of our efforts to improve Chicago recycling here at Flood Brothers with our state-of-the-art facilities. Recycling is very beneficial for the planet and the environment, but it does have costs and processes associated with it.
So, what if there was a way to re-use waste without having to process it?
Put simply, upcycling is turning garbage into something useable. A common example of upcycling is the old coffee can as mentioned earlier, which has been indispensable as a "various items holder" in workshops and garages for decades.
However, environmentally-conscious consumers are finding countless unique ways to upcycle all kinds of garbage. Homes have been made from plastic bottles, for example. Broken-down pallets -- something immediately recognizable as waste (ever seen wooden boards sticking out of a dumpster?) can be turned into beautiful furniture.
We've compiled a list of some of our favorite ideas and crafts on our Upcycling Pinterest page. We invite you to check them out and post your own inventions -- it's more than savvy, it's environmentally sound.