Waste Management Through Upcycling

Is there an old coffee can somewhere in your house or garage, holding tools, pens, or various items? Perhaps a mint tin in your purse to hold change? Chances are that you upcycle on the regular and don't even know it.

Upcycling for a Greener Future

WHAT IS UPCYCLING?

To better understand the value of upcycling, we should take a look at something we are all familiar with -- recycling.

Recycling is a very important part of modern waste management. We're proud of our efforts to improve Chicago recycling here at Flood Brothers with our state-of-the-art facilities. Recycling is very beneficial for the planet and the environment, but it does have costs and processes associated with it.

So, what if there was a way to re-use waste without having to process it?

A DIFFERENT WAY TO RECYCLE

Put simply, upcycling is turning garbage into something useable. A common example of upcycling is the old coffee can as mentioned earlier, which has been indispensable as a "various items holder" in workshops and garages for decades.

However, environmentally-conscious consumers are finding countless unique ways to upcycle all kinds of garbage. Homes have been made from plastic bottles, for example. Broken-down pallets -- something immediately recognizable as waste (ever seen wooden boards sticking out of a dumpster?) can be turned into beautiful furniture.

We've compiled a list of some of our favorite ideas and crafts on our Upcycling Pinterest page. We invite you to check them out and post your own inventions -- it's more than savvy, it's environmentally sound.