/r/upcycling
Upcycling is reusing waste or unwanted materials without destroying them in order to create something new.
What is the difference between Recycling and Upcycling?
Recycling takes waste products, breaks them down, then forms them into something new. Upcycling is reusing waste or unwanted materials without destroying them in order to create something new, which makes upcycling more energy efficient than recycling.
More About r/Upcycling
This subreddit is for people who have come together to turn waste or unwanted items into something useful. We encourage reducing, reusing and recycling waste in the traditional fashion, but there are some things that don't recycle well, or would otherwise be thrown away. For these types of materials, we encourage re-purposing the materials.
This space is for anything upcycling. All relevant posts are welcome.
Challenge of The Month
Each month we will have a challenge on the sub. This month's challenge can be found at the top of the page as a post. You will need to upcycle something in the theme we give you and then post a picture of it in the comments of the post
All participants will get a special flair that will get updated when you do more challenges.
Posting Policy
We have a very simple posting policy. We realize that some Redditors have relevant blogs or Etsy shops. It's OK to post them here, but only if you are contributing to the Reddit community more than you are posting and cross-posting your own content.
Where did my post go?
Reddit has an aggressive system for weeding out spam, especially if you're new or cross-posting the same content throughout many subreddits. If you notice your post is missing and doesn't get any responses by the end of the day, just feel free to message the mod to bring attention to the spam trap.
Related Subreddits
/r/upcycling
They are pretty sturdy, made out of cardboard.
Anyone who hasn't done an Upcycled/Recycled project....let me warn you it's addictive!!
My neighbor, Mary, was kind enough to pick me up a eucalyptus tree about a month back when she found a really good price per unit on them somewhere.
While acclimating and moving this guy around the yard to see where he best fits in I began to worry about protecting it from lawn mower/weed whacker slings, being run over by vehicles, animals in general, and so on because research showed it is a shallow root system plant. Wouldn't take much to dislodge or damage it until it gets firmly established (figure about a year and a half or so).
While doing a little spring cleaning I ran across this old wash bin I've had forever. Wasn't being used for much more than a "Catch Hell" container of miscellaneous things because of the condition. Saw it and thought to myself it's freaking perfect.
So, spent about a week sanding rust, prepping with primer (white coat in pictures), sealing with exterior grade paint (silver coat in pictures), and giving it a little pizzazz and personality (green accent paint).
Bottom cut out to allow root system to "dig down" and grow into the natural landscape. Plan is to cut away the protective metal sides a couple of years from now once my eucalyptus can hold it's it own. Assuming I don't kill it between now and then.
Took me far longer than I thought it would yesterday to actually put the bin in the ground and transplant my little tree but I think final result is worth it.
Already got another Upcycle/Recycle project in mind. This time I want to up the ante with multiple pieces to be combined into a single piece and hopefully the inclusion of a solar light feature.
Ambitious I know but like I said earlier....this is an addictive past time.
Ya'll got some yard/garden things going on? Would love to know - see - what Ya'll got going on.
I'm looking to turn an old Barbour, waxed cotton jacket into a set of headcovers for my golf clubs (see photos for the inspo) . I have no experience sewing but need a rough idea of the necessary equipment/tools and advice on how to do do this without wasting a jacket and messing it up.
It looks like the easiest way to achieve this would be to cut the arms off so that I already have the cylinder and clean stitching at one end and would only then need a bit of fabric to sew into the other end to the seal it off but could be wrong. I also want to make sure when measuring i allow enough room for the different clubs and worry i may miss something and not leave enough room so any advice on measuring correctly would be useful.
Any help appreciated
Hey all,
My girlfriend is studying Cultural Studies in France and supposed to write an essay about craftsmanship (l'artisanat) and its cultural influence and since she has a background in costume design she would like to focus on clothing and textile without delving into the fashion industry/haute couture. Hence upcycling and the trend toward tayloring/customizing used clothes and fabrics into new, exciting stuff to wear! According to her professor, she must link her topic to a piece of media, be it a movie, book, series, etc. Do you have an idea about a story where characters are shown to upcycle, redesign clothes/accessories without necessarily wanting to sell them to make it as a fashion designer? Just regular people who take part in it to express themselves, as a hobby, out of frugality, etc.
Thank you so much for your suggestions !