Upcycling
Mini Literature Review
Upcycling
Aisela Sosa
English 1311
October 15, 2014
Upcycling
Upcycling is a process in which disposable or discarded items are repurposed to make
them valuable, useful, or simply our pleasing benefits. Upcycling is done to create new and
wonderful ways to use things, instead of simply purchasing new objects. As the Author Buttler
(2011) in the article Upcycling stated “The term "upcycling" was first used in 1994, in relation to
criticism of recycling practices in Germany, where recycled materials were always reconstituted
rather than reused as they existed before. Upcycling has since become a popular technique, and
PHOOEY has been an enthusiastic advocate for the process in Australia - hence the exhibition
title. Materiality is integral to each PHOOEY project, with the emphasis on how materials are
used rather than what materials are used.” (pg.40).This states how people created the word
upcycle, and how they found out how amazing it can be. They came up with this term because
they found out how recycling and upcycling mean something completely different. People often
confuse the terms upcycle and recycle. Even though they are two similar concepts, they have a
completely different meaning. We all know that the basis of recycling is a process that takes an
item that has originally served its purpose and targets it to returning the item back to the cycle of
daily contribution to society, instead of discarding it to the trash and affecting the air pollution by
making our world full of trash and dirtiness. Recycling is mainly about saving the environment
and creating a clean and save world for all of us. Many of us practice the role of recycling
because we know that it’ll help our environment. Our environment is the most important factor
in our lives because it’s where we live, and it basically helps us live, Which makes us appreciate
recycling as well. They both play an important factor in saving our earth and material. The main
point is that Upcycling takes a big part in our daily life and we all have to be more informed
about it, therefore I’ll be informing one about the importance of how upcycling takes a big part
in benefiting our environment, monetary value, and how creativity is the most essential material
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for upcycling, and how upcycling takes a big part in benefiting our environment. Also, the many
resources where one can fine the upcycling process.
We the people never notice how much trash, clothes, and other objects we throw away,
we simply just throw it away because it’s just easy for us to throw it rather than to create
something with those objects. We just simply don’t believe in the concept of upcycling. We no
longer live in a society where we can just throw things away. As stated in the book Chemistry of
the environment chapter 16 by Ronald A, Bailey (2002) “Safe disposal of solid wastes is a
serious problem within our culture, which generates ever larger amounts of disposable materials
and an increasing population density, we can no longer simply throw things away.” (pg.6) This
reflects how we all need to be aware of how by us throwing trash and objects, we are creating
larger amounts of disposable materials that can be used for other things with greater value. Other
than just throwing trash and creating a dirty environment. As the author B, McMaster (2010), in
the article The career Closet Upcycling Program states “In 2012, the average person living in the
United States throws away 70 pounds of clothing, shoes and other household textiles each year.
This textile waste goes into landfills where it makes up 10% of all the waste there” (pg. 2). This
reflects how many people throw away trash and objects that can be reused and create wonderful
and more valuable things with those object being thrown away. One shouldn’t just throw away
clothing nor objects because we know that those objects can be reused into something more
valuable and it saves a lot of money. As stated in the article The Garbage Decade by William
(1984), “700 students and 60 organizations have helped the garbage project record more than a
million items from 8,000 house hold refuse samples” (pg.5) It’s important for us to create a much
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healthy world for us and everyone around us. It’s important to realize how much trash we throw
away.
Upcycling is a great way to save the environment in many positive ways. This particular
material allows you to generate environmental benefits by reducing waste preventing the
destruction resources all while proving your creativity matter. For example, saving landfill space
also helps our environment in a very beneficial matter. As stated in this very interesting and
useful article called Upcycled by William (2010), “Upcycling helps divert resources from
landfills and incinerators into upcycling industries. Choosing to recycle your old clothes and
buying recycled-content clothing, for instance, helps to clear up 5% of landfill space” (pg. 5).
This proves that upcycling is making a great impact helping the landfill space. By clearing up
more than 5% of land fill space, it might not be a lot yet it’s something, knowing that all this is
because of Upcycling.
Upcycling also saves energy as stated in the same article Upcycle by William (2010)
“Upcycling materials rather than creating new products from virgin resources always saves
energy and reduces the climate impact of those products. Take recycling glass instead of creating
from new resources. Recycling one glass container saves enough energy to light a 100-watt light
bulb for 4 hours” (pg.5) This proves that upcycling is a very economic and helpful way to help
the environment, and what more of a better way than to do it by saving energy. Energy is the
ability to do work, and it takes a lot of that to create a wonderful and safe environment. What a
better way to do it than to do it by upcycling. As Rajendran (2013) mentioned in the article
Plastics Rubber & Composites, “The energy consumption is one of the indirect contribution of
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greenhouse gas emission, but apart from energy consumption, in the process is found to emit
high levels of carbon dioxide” (pg.2) This proves how energy is a very important concept in our
life. We are saving our environment by saving energy and all this is because of upcycling.
It also saves resources as also stated in this article Upcycle by Williams (2010) “Our
forests, mountains, and oceans needs to be protected from being over- harvested for their natural
resources. Upcycling helps to accomplish this by reusing materials that are already part of the
value chain rather than harvesting new resources” (pg. 5) Another important fact is, there are far
more benefits to upcycling resources also found in the recycling industry, but this information
should give you an idea of the enormous potential upcycling has to reverse some of the our
world’s biggest environmental problems. There is some very helpful material that provides great
information about saving the environment while upcycling. It’s incredible how Upcycling helps
the environment in so many positive ways such as saving energy, landfill space, and saving
resources. As the author Therm (2013) mentioned in his article “pyrolysis is one important way
to treat polystyrene waste and upcycle to useful materials.” (pg. 6). Pyrolysis is a decomposition
brought about high temperatures, which is another source of saving our environment.
Polystyrene is a synthetic resin that is a polymer of styrene, used chiefly as lightweight rigid
foams and films, as also stated by the author Therm (2013) in his article about how “the
worldwide production of plastic is 150 million tons per year, and polystyrene contributes around
10% of it.” (pg. 8). Which inform us how the production of plastic has developed 150 million
tons per year, these is a lot of plastic that the worldwide has contribute with which makes up
think how much we can upcycle with all that plastic.
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Advantages of using waste material for products when upcycling are saving money, and
creating a more durable product. As Bramston (2014) states, “The need to create items from
waste is setting an unexpected ingenious example to move prosperous society and one can see
the emergency of global community designers and other enthuastic advocates who point to the
significates of such vernacular innovation” (pg. 6). As stated in the article Waste Not by Szaky
(2010) “Your cost goes down because its garbage, and eliminates virgin materials.” (pg. 40).
Reflecting that what one thought was trash can become a whole new valuable object without
having to waste so much money and having to buy a new object, when you can create by
upcycling trash by using your creativity and craftsmen ship. As mentioned by Crawford (2011)
“Many crafters enjoy creating items that are both attractive and functional, and the basket in this
connection fits the bill. This is useful and affordable collection, especially suitable for beginners”
(pg.5). This proves how upcycling is attractive by many and you can create many fashionable
items. Upcycling jewelry has become a very fundamental trending in our society. As Owen
(2013) mentioned, “Making wearable art with items that were bond for the trash can has become
increasingly trending, and it is a fun way to hone one’s crafting skills” (pg.1). This proves that
people enjoy mixing the old with the new to create valuable and unique jewelry to one’s
personality. For example in one of the articles from the book Jewelry Upcycled by Sherri Haab,
Jane Salley designed an upcycled silver spoon necklace “For this necklace she found a clever
way to use a beautiful silver spoon for an elegant beaded necklace design. To make a silver
spoon necklace, look for solid sterling silver instead of silver-plated cutlery. Plated silver is
composed of a base metal that is extremely hard to cut through. Old silver can be found in thrift
shops or antique stores. Jane used a real dried rose as the center focal piece in this design. In
describing her necklace, she remarks: ‘when I saw the big silver spoon I wonder about all the
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family dinners it had served. I wanted to honor this humble object that had lost its place in the
world by giving it a new purpose.’ This reflects how upcycling can also create a sentimental
value, and how people actually create upcycled objects. Another example of upcycled jewelry is
decorative tin jewelry designed by Sherri Haab, “Tins or a great source for colorful metal, and I
enjoy looking for interesting designs to cut from tins to transform into jewelry. Tins are often
given during the holiday season, filled with hot drink mixes, candy, or cookies. Unique old tins
can often be found in antique stores. Rust and scratches add to the charm of an old tin, which is
perfect for a vintage-style jewelry price.” (pg.67). This proves how upcycling is very economic
and very essay to do you’ll just have to express your creativity and imagination since that is all
you really need in order to practice this very essential method of upcycling. What I do know is
very essential, upcycling is being creative and having a wonderful imagination. It’s all up to one
to create a project that will satisfy our wants and needs. What a better way to do so, than to do it
being creative. No one actually teaches one to be creative it has to come out of your heart and
imagination. That’s what counts and makes upcycling more valuable and interesting. As the
author Cropley (2000) mentions, “The scales measure creative personality traits in our sample
are very heterogeneous in their approach. Because they asses different aspects, concurrent
validity of these scales in general is reflected in a correlation of about .50 with other similar test”
(pg.6). Being creative can express a lot of what makes you a human being and upcycling is a
great way to express your creativity. When upcycling you’re most important material is your
creativity, many people claim that they are not creative. Honestly that’s not possible, everyone is
creative in their own way. Imagination is the action of forming new ideas, and images of external
objects that are not present around our area. Yes, one needs a lot of imagination when creating
the process of upcycling you need to analyze what you have, and if you don’t have a certain
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material that you might need then you have to imagine it. For that you can later incorporate it
into your project once you have collected all your materials. It is very important for you to have
fully developed these two very essential materials when dealing with upcycling because they
both are your more important materials. That way we can be successful in upcycling is by setting
our minds to express imagination and creativity. We all also have to keep in mind about all the
advantages people have buy practicing the upcycling process. Such is saving money, pleasing
our wants and needs, and more importantly saving our environment. Keep in mind the concept of
upcycling because it’ll benefit you in many positive ways.
There are many resources where one can find more information about upcycling. There
are websites where one can donate objects that you don’t need or no longer use, basically trash
and they can reform the value of the object and create it into something with much more value.
The name of this organization I called TerraCycle is one of the sources you can use to make
business. What is TerraCycle? It is a company where they offer you money for certain types of
trash that one has collected. If you are not the person who likes to create martial one could just
send out your trash yet, it doesn’t necessarily need to be trash, it can be many other things that
you don’t find useful anymore and want to get rid of. For example, clothes, handbags, furniture,
plastic material, anything you think of just be creative. TerraCycle is a great company to do so.
Etsy is another website where you can start your own upcycling business. Here you can
create your own shop and start selling your upcycle product right away! As also stated in Inside
Business by Robinson (2013), “If you have a creative mind yourself then you can start a business
by creating the products yourself and then selling them online. There really is no limit to the
amount of products that can be created for the home and garden” (pg.6). As proven there are
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many more websites where you can sell your Upcycle products. One of them being eBay.
Inclusive buy the products as well for one’s own needs and desires. One of the reasons why
many of us buy these products are mainly because we might think there’re cute, we like the
product or simply because we find it amazing how they basically use the process of recycling
unnecessary products and trash into something completely better and with more quality and
value. Upcycling Products Costumers Actually Want by Nathan Rothstein is an article where the
author tells us about his business with upcycling.
An important fact about upcycling is the impact it has in the economy, and how these
concept is not being recorded. Many of us don’t realize that we waste much more money with
new objects when we know we can built them ourselves. We will never know how much one
sells of upcycling products because these products are not being record, as the object in stores. In
stores all products are recorded as how much they have and how much they’ve sold. There is no
research about how many upcycle objects people sell in the past years nor how much money
people are making by doing so. What I do know is that there is websites as I mention before
where you earn money while simply donating trash, and also where you can find upcycle objects
on sale or even sell them on your own. Which proves me that there is actual resources where one
can develop the upcycling concept, yet why don’t we know how much one makes out of these
concept or how many objects are sold? I believe this is all about all these objects not being
recorded. I feel that all these important facts should be recorded for that later in the future we can
be inform of how upcycling is going around the world.
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In conclusion, I believe that everyone should be more aware of the concept of upcycling
with all the information I express in the following. More importantly being aware of the great
advantages upcycling has towards the environment which are saving landfill space, energy, and
resources we all should know how all these are very essential for us to live in a much healthier
environment for ourselves and our future generation. Also, being aware of monetary value how
upcycling can save you a good amount of money while using your creativity and building object
on your own and making them twice as valuable. In addition, I set very good resources where
one can find the upcycling concept and express their creativity, and benefit from them. They are
recourse where one can donate objects with no value and they will convert them into something
with much more quality. Finally, one can sell their own projects and make great profit towards it.
Upcycling is a very interesting concept that everyone should look up doing because it is very
beneficial towards a lot of aspects in the world. It is important for all of us to be aware of the
importance of it.
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References
Rajendran, S., Hodzic, A., (Feb2013). Plastics, Rubber composites, Vol 42 issue, DOI 10.
1179//7432898124.6002
Owen, R., (2013). Jewlery Youth Spotlight on crafts and gardening, 745.5 DOI
9781477712832.
Buttler, K., (Jan/Feb 2011). Upcycling, Vol. 100 Issue 1, DOI 40309348040.5
Crawford, BJ., (Aug 2011). Great Weekend Projects. Crafts n DIY, Vol. 136 Issu 13,
JSBN.97814547098.
Therm, J., Anal Colorim, (2013). III :781-788 DOI 10.1007b/S/0973-012-2464-6
Szaky, T., (Oct. 2010). Waste Not Vol. 64 Issue 5 DOI 2422483929293.3
McCaster, B., (May 2012). The Carrer closet upcycling program DOI 8484939393.4
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William, L., (Sep 1984). The garbage Decade DOI 10.117/002764840
Bramsten, B., (2014). Designing w/waste Materials Expirence, DOI 10.10161B978
Amick, S., (2014). Quaternary International DOI 10.11516 Vol. 350
Ronald, A., (2002). Solid Waste Disposal and recycling, Chemistry of the Enviorment
DOI. 10.1016/B878
Middleton, L., (Oct. 2007). New Scientist, Vol 196, Issue2624 DOI 3838848940.1
Thys, E., Sabbe, B., De Hert, M., (2014). The assessment of creativity in creativity|
psychopothology research 19:4 359-377, DOI: 10.1080113546805
Haab, S., Haab, M., (2011). Jewelry upcycled. New York DOI 8849304994.4
Bunde, S., (2010). DIY Wood Pallet projects. DOI 9488993.4