recycling, upcycling and repurposing

In my free time, when I don't have the energy to be making earrings or bracelets, I watch television. Because I live on campus, and I don't pay extras for cable, I usually watch Korean tv shows my partner gets from online. And one of the programs we've been enjoying these days are something called "The Condition of Man" in which several Korean comedians undergo a certain project for a week. Those projects are closely related to, yes! the condition of man. The first week, they lived without internet, cellphones and television. The second week, they are trying to live without making any waste/trash at all. It's quite interesting-- if they fail to eat everything on their plates, they have to bag it and bring it home. If they bought something that is paper wrapped or box wrapped, they must bring that too. At the end of the day, each person weighs the waste they made that day, and the one with the most trash get "punished" (since it's a funny television show, the punishment part is fun as well. Once, the "most wasteful" of the day had to take off his shirt outside in the freezing cold and have a bucket of water thrown on his back! 

Watching this, me and my partner got very intrigued, and inspired. We used to recycle everything back home, and now live at a place where it seems that recycling is optional rather than mandatory. Perhaps this is the more so, because we live on campus as I said, and the mixed recycle bin is not placed in front of every apartment, but placed here and there randomly. Thus, people just throw everything out, without thinking much about the need to recycle. Sad, right? The sadder thing, is that although we do still recycle (lucky for us, the recycle bin is only 5 minute walk away from our apartment), we did become more wasteful than when in Seoul. So, what to do? We decided not to purchase bottled water and drink only purified water (which our faithful Britta produces for us), not purchase soda (since soda comes in cans), not purchase milk that is bottled in plastic, and etc. We used to love the Capri-Sun like juice packs we usually got from Aldi, because that is also wasteful, we replaced it with juice that comes in paper boxes--the large ones, not the individually boxed ones. And so forth. It's all easy, but we would not have done this if we hadn't watched the show. How powerful certain television shows can be, yeah? :)

Anyways, after we went through that change, I came to ponder on the idea of upcycling (and I think some people like to call it repurposing as well). I don't have the time or skill to do these things yet (I would love to learn how to do some of these stuff), but I figured that by buying such things rather than brand new stuff from Target and the like, I will be able to contribute some, in saving our environment?

The above photo is an image I got from Google, with the search word upcycling. Teacups seem to be a popular material among upcycling artists.

This is a very common use of old teacups. I think I also saw stuff like these at my favorite cafe in Seoul-- it was a coffee/tea place, and of course, they had lots of chipped tea cups, right? So, on tables and their restroom counters, they had placed teacup beewax candles. How brilliant. I have a few chipped cups I would love to repurpose this way. Maybe I'll look into this during Summer break.

This one, is another random image-- I forgot to save the source when I saved the pic. But, wouldn't this look so lovely at a cafe?

Here are some more awesome ideas I found online. Recycle neckties! Or, pick up a few used ones at Goodwill, and let your imagination run away. It would be best if you had some basic designing skills and sewing skills:) I plan to make some of such things when I go back home this Summer-- I know Dad has at least 10 old ties he never wears anymore. I'll steal them from him (but I will, of course, ask for permission!), and make...I don't know what yet, but something colorful and lovely!

recycled bottle becomes an awesome vase

Here is a link to a fun idea. You can transform your bottle into a vase.

Or, you can cut your bear bottles and use it as a cup (in which case you would have to render it so that it won't cut your lips!) or make candles...or, you can simply purchase it from:

bear bottles get new lives

I would personally, love to own one of such candles. :)

and this seems like a good project for those with lots of sweaters you no longer wear:

and here is the link

sweater becomes cushion cover


What project do you like the most?
I think I might be up to trying the sweater cushion, the necktie coin purse, and the cup candle. But for the time being, I will focus more on producing less waste. Let's see how things go from here.

2.16. 2013