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Upcycling

socialcycling

SocialCycling Turns Unrecyclable Products Into Usable Items

We write a lot about upcycling, or the practice of reusing products for new purposes to prevent waste. Now DMD Green, an environmental management consulting company, wants to make the process even easier with its new SocialCycling ...READ»

terracycle
TERRACYCLE   |  Comment

Terracycle Upcycles Frito-Lay Bags Into Speakers

We're big fans of Terracycle--the upcycling company that made used junk food wrappers cool--and continue keep tabs on the New Jersey-based company as expands it reach, first into the international market, and now into ...READ»

atm
ECOATM   |  2 comments

EcoATM Pays Cash for Your Old Cell Phones

Until now there have been limited options for recycling old cell phones--send it back to the manufacturer, send it to one of a number of Web sites that offer cash for your used electronics, or go to the cell-phone store and hand it ...READ»

bot
ADOPTABOT   |  1 comment

Adoptabot: the Friendly Household Upcycled Robot

Looking for a household pet? Consider picking up an Adoptabot, a robot made from found items like cameras, bells, and cutlery. Brian Marshall's Adoptabots reside in an Etsy robot orphanage, where they're waiting for you to adopt ...READ»

Olive Tree Light
COPPER   |  Comment

Olive Tree Light Makes Recycled Copper Scrap Beautiful

We have no shortage of copper in the United States, so it comes as no surprise to learn that landfills are crammed with copper lurking in gadgets and circuit boards. Enter the Olive Tree Light, a lamp made up of recycled copper ...READ»

cd cases

Extreme Upcycling: Shanghai Corporate Pavilion Is Made Out of Used CD Cases

Upcycling plastic bottles into t-shirts and billboards into backpacks is innovative, to be sure. But Shanghai's Corporate Pavilion takes the upcycling trend to extremes: The entire exterior of the 4,949 square meter structure is ...READ»

loopt

Looptworks Upcycles Textile Scraps Into Clothing

American Apparel is attracting attention (as usual) for selling its Bag-O-Scraps to consumers, but a new company called Looptworks is actually taking excess textile waste and turning it into limited edition clothing. In other words, ...READ»

drinking straws

Clutch Light Demonstrates the Beauty of Plastic Drinking Straws

Sure, some eco-conscious coffee shops and restaurants offer biodegradable drinking straws to customers, but most shops still offer plastic straws that more often than not end up in landfills. According to designer Scott Jarvie, that ...READ»

filt
FILT   |  Comment

Candles Made From Used Cooking Oil + Recycled Glass

Waste cooking oil doesn't have to go down the drain; it can be used to make candles, according to the creators of the Filt waste oil candle. Filt's Tokyo office sits on top of the popular Chubby cafe. Periodically, Filt ...READ»

terracycle

Terracycle's Global Expansion, First Stop Brazil

Ultra-popular upcycling company TerraCycle is introducing its reclaimed products to the global market with a new program in Brazil. 59 Wal-Mart stores in São Paulo, Curitiba and Recife are putting up collection points for Frito-Lay ...READ»

carpet

Universal Fiber Rescues Your Old Carpets From Landfills

Why should ugly old carpets be relegated to landfills? That's the thinking behind Universal Fiber's new ReFresh Fiber, a nylon fiber made out of post-consumer Nylon 6,6 carpeting from landfills. Universal Fiber just won New York ...READ»

machine

Machine Turns Boring Office Memos Into What They Should Be: Toilet Paper

Tokyo-based manufacturer Nakabayashi has come up with a unique solution to the problem of excess used printer paper: an in-house machine that turns used A4-sized copier paper into toilet rolls. Nakabayashi's massive 600 kg machine ...READ»

retread
RE-TREAD   |  2 comments

Re-Tread Upcycles Tires into Earthquake-Resistant Building Material

Companies have been using ground-up tire "crumbs" for years in products like shoe soles and synthetic turf, but grinding up tires uses plentiful energy. But Re-Tread Products' Tire Logs, presented at this week's ...READ»

frito

Don't Throw That Chip Bag Away! Give It Back to Frito-Lay, and Let Terracycle Turn It Into a Fashion Accessory

Instead of tossing that bag of Doritos in the trash, consider sending it back to Frito-Lay. It might just get turned into a tote bag. Frito-Lay has announced that it's opening 1,000 collection sites in the U.S. for used snack ...READ»

tire
TIRES   |  Comment

Forget TV Dinners: Microwaving Tires is the Next Big Thing

Disposing of the nearly 300 million car tires that are ditched every year in North America isn't easy. Burying them takes up way too much space, and recyclers are often hard to find. We've seen tires upcycled by enterprising ...READ»

mogul
TERRACYCLE   |  Comment

Garbage Moguls: The Trashiest Reality TV Show Ever [preview]

Reality shows are often classified as trashy TV. Now things have come full circle with a reality program focusing on--you guessed it--garbage. Garbage Moguls, premiering today on The National Geographic Channel, follows a team ...READ»

Tom Szaky

How TerraCycle Plans to Takeover the Garbage Industry

Fast Interview: In this Q&A, TerraCycle founder Tom Szaky talks about why eco-friendly products don't have to be expensive, his quest to corner the trash market, and why his wife performed in Carnegie Hall in a dress made from recycled juice pouches.READ»

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