Upcycling

Dean Brown's Baked Bean Can Pumps Out the Jams

Ariel Schwartz — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:13:19 -0500

SocialCycling Turns Unrecyclable Products Into Usable Items

Ariel Schwartz — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:27:17 -0500

Terracycle Upcycles Frito-Lay Bags Into Speakers

Ariel Schwartz — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:44:20 -0400

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 electronics.

EcoATM Pays Cash for Your Old Cell Phones

Ariel Schwartz — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:20:08 -0400

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 over. EcoATM, an automated e-cycling station that just opened in the Nebraska Furniture Mart, is the easiest solution yet.

Adoptabot: the Friendly Household Upcycled Robot

Ariel Schwartz — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:24:07 -0400

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 them.

Olive Tree Light Makes Recycled Copper Scrap Beautiful

Ariel Schwartz — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:22:21 -0400

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 rings fashioned into a honeycomb-like design.

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

Ariel Schwartz — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:37:10 -0400

Looptworks Upcycles Textile Scraps Into Clothing

Ariel Schwartz — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 10:25:10 -0400

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, the company is trying to make trash a coveted item.

Clutch Light Demonstrates the Beauty of Plastic Drinking Straws

Ariel Schwartz — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:56:04 -0400

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 doesn't have to be the case. His Clutch Light, which is based on the characteristics of trees, contains hundreds of drinking straws to create a dazzling multi-color lamp.

Candles Made From Used Cooking Oil + Recycled Glass

Ariel Schwartz — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:22:26 -0400

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.

Terracycle's Global Expansion, First Stop Brazil

Ariel Schwartz — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:23:40 -0400

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 chip bags, which will be shredded and turned into clipboards and bags.

Universal Fiber Rescues Your Old Carpets From Landfills

Ariel Schwartz — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:46:12 -0400

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.

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

Ariel Schwartz — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:32:32 -0400

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 can create two rolls each hour from used paper.

Re-Tread Upcycles Tires into Earthquake-Resistant Building Material

Ariel Schwartz — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:29:42 -0400

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 Greener By Design conference in San Francisco, don't need to be ground up-- they are easily transformed into a durable, bendable green building material with help from commercially available sidewall removing machines.

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

Ariel Schwartz — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:39:59 -0400

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.

Forget TV Dinners: Microwaving Tires is the Next Big Thing

Ariel Schwartz — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:59:09 -0400

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.

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

Ariel Schwartz — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:31:48 -0400

Reality shows are often classified as trashy TV. Now things have come full circle with a reality program focusing on--you guessed it--garbage.

How TerraCycle Plans to Takeover the Garbage Industry

Kermit Pattison — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:15:10 -0400

Garbage in, garbage out? This old cliché may become obsolete as trash becomes the raw material of innovation and green business. Upcycling, or turning disposable items into new products, is becoming big business. The leading player in this growing industry is TerraCycle, which makes a variety of products from recycled material: fertilizers from worm poop, backpacks from juice pouches and reusable tote bags from plastic bags. Based in Trenton, New Jersey, the 60-person company had $8 million in sales last year and expects $15 million this year.