Home Job Board Advertise Job Skills Blog

Trash to Cash through "Upcycling"

In the past decade, it seems that humanity is finding itself at a crossroads over the environment and the finite natural resources that the earth contains. The world has long enjoyed a period of great expansion in manufacturing and production that allows a substantial portion of the population to enjoy all of the great and convenient things that we now love and sometimes rely on. The problem that humanity will eventually face is that many things on this earth are finite or there is only so much. It is important that we embrace a lifestyle of sustainability and reusability for the sake of not only our generation, but for future generations to come. Now, before you start thinking about digging through your garbage and sorting all of your plastics and glass for the recycling guy, think again. A new form of recycling called "upcycling" is becoming a fun, practical, and potentially economic boosting trend in saving the environment.

Upcycling, which I'm sure everybody is wondering what that is, promotes the fact that you can turn would be waste products and turn them into something neat, useful, or even something potentially beautiful. William McDonough and Michael Braungart best describe Upcycling in their 2002 book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. They essentially describe "upcycling" as turning waste into something useful and "recycling" as turning waste into something that is not quite as useful and sometimes not that green either.

What could potentially be a rags to riches story is that upcycling is quickly becoming an industry in itself. There have been several shops opening up especially in the Boston area that turn what would seem like useless waste and creating beautiful fashion items out of them. What makes this a prime industry that could really take off and has the potential to create a lot of jobs is the basic facts that there will always be waste, most people are willing to give away their waste, and that the only limiting factor in this equation is creativity, which seems to be in very great supply in this industry. Some examples of upcycled goods are custom jackets and hoodies stitched out of old clothes that sell for upwards of $100 to converting old drink containers into pencil holders and these are just to name a few. The possibilities are literally endless.

One such example of a company capitalizing on this growing market is Terracycle. Terracycle takes waste products and produces anything from coolers to fences and then sells their products at large stores like Wal-Mart and Kmart. Terracycle is doing so well they employ approximately 50 people and have annual revenue in the millions of dollars.

So for people who care about the environment, wants to see future generations have a beautiful earth, and wouldn't mind seeing our economy get back on track and maybe even have a flair for fashion, then the solution to nearly guilt free consumerism might have been here all along in the form of upcycling.