Discover how everyday trash can be transformed into treasure with creative Upcycling
A look at upcycling from different perspectives and the differences between people around the world.
In this article:
- A look at upcycling from different perspectives and the differences between people around the world.
- Poverty and upcycling
- Wealth and Upcycling
- From garbage can to the millionaire?
- Two left hands but I love upcyled stuff?
Is that an hardware store?
For some people the garbage can is the hardware store for upcycler
Everyone who has found his love for upcycling for a long time will hear the question sooner or later. Is the garbage can the hardware store for the upcycler?
This or something similar, many people ask themselves the question at the end of the day when they think about upcycling and how does it work in real life?
Surely quite a few of these people have the image in their minds of how the head and upper body, from the upcycling guy, have been plunged deep into a garbage can because he saw a great old bicycle lamp at the bottom behind the emptied ashtray next to the diaper, which he wants to convert into a table lamp.
Again emerged from the depths of the garbage, then proudly the bicycle lamp in the ashes smeared fingers on the sleeve today only eggshells. There was more on the nappy than next to it but into the backpack and at home into the water bath, maybe also wash the backpack. But it doesn’t have to be, just air it as usual it fits, the next “treasure” will surely have that certain aroma again. At the latest when your partner says:
“Why dig for treasure if there is no gold and please open both windows”
you should reconsider your love for upcycling or at least take a shower.
You don't have to do that to become an upcycler!
Upcycling treasure hunts can be very dirty
Not even if the table lamp had been completely built in it, I would go on such a dive. It is dirty, disgusting and unhygienic and upcycling does not have to be like that at all. But can it be, because everybody has to decide for himself how deep he wants to dig for raw material and which limits he wants or has to exceed.
Is the carbage can the hardware store for upcycler? You could say so, but what is carbage can and what is hardware store, everyone has to find out for himself.A good indicator of whether you have dived too deep are the faces of your friends when you tell them where you got the parts of the upcycling furniture on which they are sitting with the new dress.
Poverty and upcycling
Source: Medeo/Geo
Beverage cans brought to new life from the garbage can
It is very likely that upcycling has its origin in the connection with poverty and was therefore invented by poor people in emergency situations. In third world countries, just like after war or simply where people do not have the most necessary things to live. Often old things were used for new purposes when nothing else was available, to make everyday life easier or simply to have a penny in hand.
And exactly this penny is what the word “Up” in “Upcycling” means. Something old which has no value and no use anymore, to turn it into something new which has a use and therefore a value. This is the difference to recycling.
Recycling is when the washing drum is scrapped from the old washing machine and from this a washing drum for a new washing machine is created. Upcycling is when the old drum is turned into a living room lamp or a fire basket.
Life in the garbage can of our society
Source: Brot für die welt: https://www.brot-fuer-die-welt.de/projekte/mosambik-bildung/
If trash is the most valuable thing you can have
In the poorest countries of the world, many are forced to do what was humorously described above. That would be very inappropriate in this case. Going through the garbage and hoping to find something useful or to build something useful to survive is far away from any humor. But as far as creativity is concerned, these people are the richer and sometimes incredible things are upcycled there. In the best case they can buy food from it and hope for the next day without hunger. Upcycling is not a freely chosen hobby there, but a forced struggle for survival.
Maybe it is a category of its own for upcycling, because the ideas are born out of bitter hardship but it is by far one of the most creative and imaginative. One cannot be completely euphoric about this kind of upcycling, since the source of creativity is the bitter suffering of the people. Nevertheless you can look at what is created there and be amazed. In the best case one thinks of the people who create it and gets an awareness of what happens to people far from a path.
Our question was: Is the garbage can the hardware store for the upcyclers? In this case the answer is unfortunately YES.
Wealth and Upcycling
Dollar bill upcycling as wallpaper
Probably the sunny side of upcycling. If people are rich enough, Upcycling is a creative hobby which is a lot of fun. In addition, the society around me is not living in poverty and is not buying new things. A new thing usually leaves an old one behind, which does not mean that it is really old and useless.
Especially in the western industrial countries, this can lead to an incredible variety of material, which costs nothing or very little, because it was intended for bulky waste. Cheap enough to experiment wildly, in the worst case it just ends up on the bulky waste. In the best case you have a designer piece that is creative as well as noble and valuable. A unique piece, which many would like to have themselves.
Where can I find the garbage can that will be
my hardware store?
Sources with material to let your creativity run free can be found everywhere. Starting with the clearing out of flats and second hand furniture shops, recycling yards and flea markets to the internet with classifieds like ebay and exchange and “to give away” sites. The sources are inexhaustible if you have trained your eye a little bit and you have the beautiful shelf with the new desk in front of your inner eye, although you just see dirty old wooden wine boxes on the bulky waste.
Is the garbage can the hardware store for the upcyclers? In this case the answer is probably rather NO.
The home as a hardware store?
You can still use that and that too…
I myself have a homemade lamp made of can opener tabs all over our apartment. More is not possible and yet I want to do even more. So I’m glad if someone finds this as cool as I do and buys a lamp from me. Of course I don’t calculate as described above and the price doesn’t cover the time needed.
But since I belong to the upcyclers in a wealthy country, I do not live on it and the thought that my lamp hangs in someone’s living room and he looks at it every day and thinks:
“What a cool lamp I bought, too bad it is only half the day dark and I have to turn it off during the day. I think I’ll close the curtain and turn on the lamp.”
This can also be very rewarding and it helps me to comply better with the prohibition, imposed by my other love, to bring more lamp parts into the apartment.
“Honey, are those lamp parts that weren’t there yesterday? I just told you this morning more than clear! If we have more rooms, we’ll need more lamps. As long as we don’t have more rooms we need more space. But not for lamps that are for rooms that we don’t have! Can you follow me, honey? Or should I print it out and stick it on the outside of the door?”
Having the right material there exactly when you want to upcycle is not only difficult because of the size of the apartment.
What kind of strategies are there in dealing with materials and their procurement, will be discussed soon in our next article.
What is it now? Is the garbage can the hardware store for the upcycler?
Yes absolutely …and no way!
As we have now seen, there is no clear answer to the question: Is the garbage can the hardware store for the upcycler? In summary, one could say that upcycling in affluent regions is much cleaner than in poor regions.
With increasing prosperity, cleanliness in the procurement of materials also increases. This probably sounds familiar and reflects one of the many facts of social inequality and injustice.
But upcycling itself is not unfair and the “up” in upcycling is true in each of the cases described.
Where the border of the garbage can ends and the border of the hardware store begins is probably an individual and personal assessment of everyone who asks himself: Is the garbage can the hardware store for the upcycler?
.
Also interesting stuff to read about upcycling
Our blog article about the question: Why upcycling and what is it all about?
To be found here on the “We Love Upcycling” page.
A nice article about the topic Upcycling found on Reuters.com
A worth reading article about upcycling can be found on Virgin.com.
Discover how everyday trash can be transformed into treasure with creative Upcycling
A look at upcycling from different perspectives and the differences between people around the world.
In this article:
- A look at upcycling from different perspectives and the differences between people around the world.
- Poverty and upcycling
- Wealth and Upcycling
- From garbage can to the millionaire?
- Two left hands but I love upcyled stuff?
Is that an hardware store?
For some people the garbage can is the hardware store for upcycler
Everyone who has found his love for upcycling for a long time will hear the question sooner or later. Is the garbage can the hardware store for the upcycler?
This or something similar, many people ask themselves the question at the end of the day when they think about upcycling and how does it work in real life?
Surely quite a few of these people have the image in their minds of how the head and upper body, from the upcycling guy, have been plunged deep into a garbage can because he saw a great old bicycle lamp at the bottom behind the emptied ashtray next to the diaper, which he wants to convert into a table lamp.
Again emerged from the depths of the garbage, then proudly the bicycle lamp in the ashes smeared fingers on the sleeve today only eggshells. There was more on the nappy than next to it but into the backpack and at home into the water bath, maybe also wash the backpack. But it doesn’t have to be, just air it as usual it fits, the next “treasure” will surely have that certain aroma again. At the latest when your partner says:
“Why dig for treasure if there is no gold and please open both windows”
you should reconsider your love for upcycling or at least take a shower.
You don't have to do that to become an upcycler!
Upcycling treasure hunts can be very dirty
Not even if the table lamp had been completely built in it, I would go on such a dive. It is dirty, disgusting and unhygienic and upcycling does not have to be like that at all. But can it be, because everybody has to decide for himself how deep he wants to dig for raw material and which limits he wants or has to exceed.
Is the carbage can the hardware store for upcycler? You could say so, but what is carbage can and what is hardware store, everyone has to find out for himself.A good indicator of whether you have dived too deep are the faces of your friends when you tell them where you got the parts of the upcycling furniture on which they are sitting with the new dress.
Poverty and upcycling
Source: Medeo/Geo
Beverage cans brought to new life from the garbage can
It is very likely that upcycling has its origin in the connection with poverty and was therefore invented by poor people in emergency situations. In third world countries, just like after war or simply where people do not have the most necessary things to live. Often old things were used for new purposes when nothing else was available, to make everyday life easier or simply to have a penny in hand.
And exactly this penny is what the word “Up” in “Upcycling” means. Something old which has no value and no use anymore, to turn it into something new which has a use and therefore a value.
This is the difference to recycling.
Recycling is when the washing drum is scrapped from the old washing machine and from this a washing drum for a new washing machine is created. Upcycling is when the old drum is turned into a living room lamp or a fire basket.
Life in the garbage can of our society
Source: Brot für die welt: https://www.brot-fuer-die-welt.de/projekte/mosambik-bildung/
If trash is the most valuable thing you can have
In the poorest countries of the world, many are forced to do what was humorously described above. That would be very inappropriate in this case. Going through the garbage and hoping to find something useful or to build something useful to survive is far away from any humor. But as far as creativity is concerned, these people are the richer and sometimes incredible things are upcycled there. In the best case they can buy food from it and hope for the next day without hunger. Upcycling is not a freely chosen hobby there, but a forced struggle for survival.
Maybe it is a category of its own for upcycling, because the ideas are born out of bitter hardship but it is by far one of the most creative and imaginative. One cannot be completely euphoric about this kind of upcycling, since the source of creativity is the bitter suffering of the people. Nevertheless you can look at what is created there and be amazed. In the best case one thinks of the people who create it and gets an awareness of what happens to people far from a path.
Our question was: Is the garbage can the hardware store for the upcyclers? In this case the answer is unfortunately YES.
Wealth and Upcycling
Dollar bill upcycling as wallpaper
Probably the sunny side of upcycling. If people are rich enough, Upcycling is a creative hobby which is a lot of fun. In addition, the society around me is not living in poverty and is not buying new things. A new thing usually leaves an old one behind, which does not mean that it is really old and useless.
Especially in the western industrial countries, this can lead to an incredible variety of material, which costs nothing or very little, because it was intended for bulky waste. Cheap enough to experiment wildly, in the worst case it just ends up on the bulky waste. In the best case you have a designer piece that is creative as well as noble and valuable. A unique piece, which many would like to have themselves.
Where can I find the garbage can that will be my hardware store?
Sources with material to let your creativity run free can be found everywhere. Starting with the clearing out of flats and second hand furniture shops, recycling yards and flea markets to the internet with classifieds like ebay and exchange and “to give away” sites.
The sources are inexhaustible if you have trained your eye a little bit and you have the beautiful shelf with the new desk in front of your inner eye, although you just see dirty old wooden wine boxes on the bulky waste.
Is the garbage can the hardware store for the upcyclers? In this case the answer is probably rather NO.
The home as a hardware store?
You can still use that and that too…
I myself have a homemade lamp made of can opener tabs all over our apartment. More is not possible and yet I want to do even more. So I’m glad if someone finds this as cool as I do and buys a lamp from me. Of course I don’t calculate as described above and the price doesn’t cover the time needed.
But since I belong to the upcyclers in a wealthy country, I do not live on it and the thought that my lamp hangs in someone’s living room and he looks at it every day and thinks:
“What a cool lamp I bought, too bad it is only half the day dark and I have to turn it off during the day. I think I’ll close the curtain and turn on the lamp.”
This can also be very rewarding and it helps me to comply better with the prohibition, imposed by my other love, to bring more lamp parts into the apartment.
“Honey, are those lamp parts that weren’t there yesterday? I just told you this morning more than clear! If we have more rooms, we’ll need more lamps. As long as we don’t have more rooms we need more space. But not for lamps that are for rooms that we don’t have! Can you follow me, honey? Or should I print it out and stick it on the outside of the door?”
Having the right material there exactly when you want to upcycle is not only difficult because of the size of the apartment.
What kind of strategies are there in dealing with materials and their procurement, will be discussed soon in our next article.
What is it now? Is the garbage can the hardware store for the upcycler?
Yes absolutely …and no way!
As we have now seen, there is no clear answer to the question: Is the garbage can the hardware store for the upcycler? In summary, one could say that upcycling in affluent regions is much cleaner than in poor regions.
With increasing prosperity, cleanliness in the procurement of materials also increases. This probably sounds familiar and reflects one of the many facts of social inequality and injustice.
But upcycling itself is not unfair and the “up” in upcycling is true in each of the cases described.
Where the border of the garbage can ends and the border of the hardware store begins is probably an individual and personal assessment of everyone who asks himself: Is the garbage can the hardware store for the upcycler?
.
Also interesting stuff to read about upcycling
Our blog article about the question: Why upcycling and what is it all about?
To be found here on the “We Love Upcycling” page.
A nice article about the topic Upcycling found on Reuters.com
A worth reading article about upcycling can be found on Virgin.com.
Discover how everyday trash can be transformed into treasure with creative Upcycling
A look at upcycling from different perspectives and the differences between people around the world.
In this article:
- A look at upcycling from different perspectives and the differences between people around the world.
- Poverty and upcycling
- Wealth and Upcycling
- From garbage can to the millionaire?
- Two left hands but I love upcyled stuff?
Is that an hardware store?
For some people the garbage can is the hardware store for upcycler
Everyone who has found his love for upcycling for a long time will hear the question sooner or later. Is the garbage can the hardware store for the upcycler?
This or something similar, many people ask themselves the question at the end of the day when they think about upcycling and how does it work in real life?
Surely quite a few of these people have the image in their minds of how the head and upper body, from the upcycling guy, have been plunged deep into a garbage can because he saw a great old bicycle lamp at the bottom behind the emptied ashtray next to the diaper, which he wants to convert into a table lamp.
Again emerged from the depths of the garbage, then proudly the bicycle lamp in the ashes smeared fingers on the sleeve today only eggshells. There was more on the nappy than next to it but into the backpack and at home into the water bath, maybe also wash the backpack. But it doesn’t have to be, just air it as usual it fits, the next “treasure” will surely have that certain aroma again. At the latest when your partner says:
“Why dig for treasure if there is no gold and please open both windows”
you should reconsider your love for upcycling or at least take a shower.
You don't have to do that to become an upcycler!
Upcycling treasure hunts can be very dirty
Not even if the table lamp had been completely built in it, I would go on such a dive. It is dirty, disgusting and unhygienic and upcycling does not have to be like that at all. But can it be, because everybody has to decide for himself how deep he wants to dig for raw material and which limits he wants or has to exceed.
Is the carbage can the hardware store for upcycler? You could say so, but what is carbage can and what is hardware store, everyone has to find out for himself.A good indicator of whether you have dived too deep are the faces of your friends when you tell them where you got the parts of the upcycling furniture on which they are sitting with the new dress.
Poverty and upcycling
Source: Medeo/Geo
Beverage cans brought to new life from the garbage can
It is very likely that upcycling has its origin in the connection with poverty and was therefore invented by poor people in emergency situations. In third world countries, just like after war or simply where people do not have the most necessary things to live. Often old things were used for new purposes when nothing else was available, to make everyday life easier or simply to have a penny in hand.
And exactly this penny is what the word “Up” in “Upcycling” means. Something old which has no value and no use anymore, to turn it into something new which has a use and therefore a value. This is the difference to recycling.
Recycling is when the washing drum is scrapped from the old washing machine and from this a washing drum for a new washing machine is created. Upcycling is when the old drum is turned into a living room lamp or a fire basket.
Life in the garbage can of our society
Source: Brot für die welt: https://www.brot-fuer-die-welt.de/projekte/mosambik-bildung/
If trash is the most valuable thing you can have
In the poorest countries of the world, many are forced to do what was humorously described above. That would be very inappropriate in this case. Going through the garbage and hoping to find something useful or to build something useful to survive is far away from any humor. But as far as creativity is concerned, these people are the richer and sometimes incredible things are upcycled there. In the best case they can buy food from it and hope for the next day without hunger. Upcycling is not a freely chosen hobby there, but a forced struggle for survival.
Maybe it is a category of its own for upcycling, because the ideas are born out of bitter hardship but it is by far one of the most creative and imaginative. One cannot be completely euphoric about this kind of upcycling, since the source of creativity is the bitter suffering of the people. Nevertheless you can look at what is created there and be amazed. In the best case one thinks of the people who create it and gets an awareness of what happens to people far from a path.
Our question was: Is the garbage can the hardware store for the upcyclers? In this case the answer is unfortunately YES.
Wealth and Upcycling
Dollar bill upcycling as wallpaper
Probably the sunny side of upcycling. If people are rich enough, Upcycling is a creative hobby which is a lot of fun. In addition, the society around me is not living in poverty and is not buying new things. A new thing usually leaves an old one behind, which does not mean that it is really old and useless.
Especially in the western industrial countries, this can lead to an incredible variety of material, which costs nothing or very little, because it was intended for bulky waste. Cheap enough to experiment wildly, in the worst case it just ends up on the bulky waste. In the best case you have a designer piece that is creative as well as noble and valuable. A unique piece, which many would like to have themselves.
Where can I find the garbage can that will be my hardware store?
Sources with material to let your creativity run free can be found everywhere. Starting with the clearing out of flats and second hand furniture shops, recycling yards and flea markets to the internet with classifieds like ebay and exchange and “to give away” sites. The sources are inexhaustible if you have trained your eye a little bit and you have the beautiful shelf with the new desk in front of your inner eye, although you just see dirty old wooden wine boxes on the bulky waste.
Is the garbage can the hardware store for the upcyclers? In this case the answer is probably rather NO.
The home as a hardware store?
You can still use that and that too…
I myself have a homemade lamp made of can opener tabs all over our apartment. More is not possible and yet I want to do even more. So I’m glad if someone finds this as cool as I do and buys a lamp from me. Of course I don’t calculate as described above and the price doesn’t cover the time needed.
But since I belong to the upcyclers in a wealthy country, I do not live on it and the thought that my lamp hangs in someone’s living room and he looks at it every day and thinks:
“What a cool lamp I bought, too bad it is only half the day dark and I have to turn it off during the day. I think I’ll close the curtain and turn on the lamp.”
This can also be very rewarding and it helps me to comply better with the prohibition, imposed by my other love, to bring more lamp parts into the apartment.
“Honey, are those lamp parts that weren’t there yesterday? I just told you this morning more than clear! If we have more rooms, we’ll need more lamps. As long as we don’t have more rooms we need more space. But not for lamps that are for rooms that we don’t have! Can you follow me, honey? Or should I print it out and stick it on the outside of the door?”
Having the right material there exactly when you want to upcycle is not only difficult because of the size of the apartment.
What kind of strategies are there in dealing with materials and their procurement, will be discussed soon in our next article.
What is it now? Is the garbage can the hardware store for the upcycler?
Yes absolutely …and no way!
As we have now seen, there is no clear answer to the question: Is the garbage can the hardware store for the upcycler? In summary, one could say that upcycling in affluent regions is much cleaner than in poor regions.
With increasing prosperity, cleanliness in the procurement of materials also increases. This probably sounds familiar and reflects one of the many facts of social inequality and injustice.
But upcycling itself is not unfair and the “up” in upcycling is true in each of the cases described.
Where the border of the garbage can ends and the border of the hardware store begins is probably an individual and personal assessment of everyone who asks himself: Is the garbage can the hardware store for the upcycler?
.
Also interesting stuff to read about upcycling
Our blog article about the question: Why upcycling and what is it all about?
To be found here on the “We Love Upcycling” page.
A nice article about the topic Upcycling found on Reuters.com
A worth reading article about upcycling can be found on Virgin.com.
