Whether or not you are an avid crafter, you’ve probably noticed a recent surge in upcycled online craft projects. Many objects thrown out each year have no place in the traditional recycling stream; and skilled artisans are learning the value of those disposed of items as craft materials.
Crafters make upcycled jewelry, upcycled handbags and hats, upcycled clothing and more. The upcycling process adds value to objects that would have eventually found their way into a trash heap.
Upcycle Your Garbage – Help the Charity of Your Choice
TerraCycle.net is upcycling in a big way. They believe there’s no such thing as garbage. To prove it, they’ve enlisted the aid of nearly 11 million people who’ve already collected nearly 2 billion items. Terracycle, with the help of it’s upcycling partners, has upcycled this trash into 186 different products like clipboards, fences and tote bags.
From the sale of these products they’ve donated more than 1.2 million dollars to charity; and they’ve arranged it so that even if you don’t want to create upcycled items yourself, you can be a part of this growing trend. Simply go to their site and join a TerraCycle.net Trash Brigade.
When you collect enough of the target items, you package them up, request a shipping label and ship them to Terracycle. You will be on your way toward helping them with their mission of keeping trash out of landfills. You can also earn cash for the charity of your choice.
Consider This Bizarre Analogy
It’s easy to send your trash to Terracycle.net. The hard part for most people is figuring out why they would want to. To help you understand why you should ship your garbage across the country instead of pitching it into a nearby trash can, Terracycle.net offers this analogy.
-All those ants don’t produce one single bit of garbage.
-People create tons of it.
Ants outnumber and outweigh humans; and yet ants exist without leaving a trail of trash wherever they go. It’s something to think about.
If comparing yourself to ants and thinking about the trash you leave behind doesn’t encourage you to rethink your garbage habits, perhaps you should revisit the whole saving-the-planet-thing. It’s very real.
You Know the Deal
Humans toss away tons of trash each year, creating endless piles of garbage that won’t waste away for hundreds of years. Then we go right out and replace the things we’ve thrown away.
We use tons of energy, raw materials and manpower reproducing new stuff to replace the things we throw away. To generate that energy, we burn fossil fuels, which emit greenhouse gases, which eat away at the ozone layer, which allows in more heat, which melts the polar ice caps, which….. well you know.
As you can see, garbage is a key part of the whole climate change dilemma. You can see how upcycling what we already have is a better idea than throwing it away and creating more.
Getting Rid of “the Idea of Garbage”
-Before you pitch one more piece of trash into the can, check out TerraCycle.net.
-Take a look at their upcycling program
-Get involved.
-Form a Trash Brigade and make some money for your charity.
-Check out National Geographic, Earth Day Episode of Garbage Moguls, “The trashiest reality TV show to hit New Jersey yet.
-Buy upcycled products
