Last week, Environmental Protection in the Caribbean (EPIC) held an upcycling workshop & fundraiser in collaboration with Joga. During the event, participants sipped on cupcake wine provided by Antillean Liquors, munched on delicious vegetarian dishes created by Chef Jackie and upcycled wine-bottles and yogurt containers into new usable pieces of art, candle holders and gifts.
What is upcycling?
Upcycling is the process of converting old or discarded materials into something useful and often beautiful, normally, in such a way as to create a product of higher quality or value than the original.
To clarify: Unravelling a wire clothes hanger to break into your car to rescue your keys is not upcycling; BUT stretching out a wire clothes hanger then tying strips of a plastic bag around it to make a wreath is upcycling!
Upcycling gives an item a better purpose. And while jimmying the lock on your car is also giving that hanger a new purpose, it’s not necessarily better or more beautiful; plus the mangled hanger is likely destined for the trash, which is the opposite intent of upcycling.
Recycling versus Upcycling
Recycling takes consumer materials, such as plastic, paper, metal and glass, and breaks them down so their base materials can be remade into a new consumer product, often of lesser quality.
When you upcycle an item, you aren’t breaking down the materials; your goal is to refashion it – like cutting a T-shirt into strips of yarn, but it’s still made of the same materials as when you started. Also, the upcycled item is typically better or the same quality as the original.
Your grandparents upcycled
Upcycling is not a new concept. Some of the best examples of modern-day upcycling come from the 1930s/40s when families had very little economic or material resources. In this age of thrift, they reused almost everything, repurposing items over and over until they were no longer useful: Feed sacks became dresses or old doors became the new dining room table.
The first recorded use of the term upcycling was by Reiner Pilz of Pilz GmbH in an article by Thornton Kay of Salvo in 1994: “We talked about the impending EU Demolition Waste Streams directive.” Recycling. He said, “I call it downcycling. They smash bricks, they smash everything.”
Upcycling today
Thrift is still a trend today and a big reason some people upcycle. Others enjoy the artistic aesthetic, with lots of upcycled items rivalling those found in high-end department stores. But one of the biggest reasons for the rebirth of upcycling is the positive impact on the environment. Items destined for the dump are rescued and remade into something useful.
Upcycling has shown significant growth across the United States. For example, the number of products on Etsy or Pinterest tagged with the word "upcycled" increased from about 7,900 in January 2010 to nearly 30,000 a year later – an increase of 275%. As of April 2013, that number stood at 263,685 – an additional increase of 879%!
Life necessity
Whilst Upcycling for some might be a choice due to its value as art, fashion or way to give back to the environment; for others in the world, it is also a necessity. For many persons in developing countries, upcycling is a way of life. Raw materials are expensive, so people use what they can find to create furniture, shoes, bowls, baskets, jewellery and other useful and beautiful items.
Upcycling is green
Plain and simple, upcycling makes a positive impact on the environment because of the following:
1. Less waste on landfills
Every day, an absolutely huge amount of waste goes into landfills around the world, general rubbish, unused products and materials, and organic waste. This landfill waste takes hundreds and thousands of years to decompose, making the land it occupies both useless and hazardous. Just think about the landfill in our Salt Pond, although it is an eyesore, fire and health hazard, it is ever growing. Upcycling removes the need for products to end their life-cycle in landfill.
2. Reducing CO2 emissions
By minimising the amount of landfill, we are in turn reducing the amount of CO2 emissions and greenhouse gas being released into the atmosphere. These emissions contribute to climate change and global warming, which pose the most serious threat to our planet and lives. Lowering emissions is the most proactive way to protect the environment.
3. Cleaner water
As well as releasing emissions into the air, landfill pollutes our groundwater through leachates – the liquid that drains out from landfill. Just imagine what chemicals seep into the Salt Pond and eventually the ocean in which we and our visitors swim! Also make yourself think about the amount of rubbish that goes into our waterways from careless consumers. Upcycled placemats, forming vibrant and interesting centrepieces for your table, can be made from hundreds of plastic bags that would otherwise be sitting in landfill, or worse clogging up our waterways and killing wildlife.
4. Less need for production
Upcycling promotes the use of old items, rather than actively buying new things. This means fewer goods need to be manufactured, reducing energy and water consumption and the use of raw materials, and conserving our global resources.
While recycling is definitely great, and contributes greatly to conservation, it requires the breaking down of products such as glass bottles and plastic containers into raw materials before these materials can be re-used.
With upcycling, there’s no need to use valuable energy or water to break products down. The product (or parts of it) is used as is to make a new item. Often this new item can be even more useful, beautiful or creative than the original product!
What can you upcycle?
Just about anything: Wine bottles, cans, newspapers, milk cartons, tires, suitcases, jeans – you name it! If you no longer have use for it, get creative and upcycle it!
Try it yourself!
For the EPIC upcycling fundraiser, we upcycled wine bottles and glass yogurt containers in a few very easy steps.
What you need
- Empty wine bottles or any other empty glass container like old peanut butter jars, jam jars, beer bottles and dessert containers
- Glass, enamel or acrylic paint (we chose acrylic paint as it was hard and expensive finding other paint on the island). For just $1.50 or $2, you can find acrylic paint in various colours in many of the dollar stores on Sint Maarten.
- Paint brushes
- Clear Varnish (this is only needed if you are using acrylic paint and intending to wash your new piece of artwork; you can find this at most hardware stores)
- Water to clean paint brushes
- Old newspapers to protect your table or other surfaces from paint
Instructions
Step 1: Clean your wine bottle (or other empty container) thoroughly. You can soak the bottle in hot water to make it easier to remove the label.
Step 2: Let the bottle dry properly.
Step 3: Get creative with water, your paint and paintbrushes on a protected surface! Paint on lines, dots, words and more to make your wine bottle a unique art-piece/vase. If it’s a gift, you can write a message on the bottle or place a message in the bottle.
Step 4: Let the paint dry properly. Read the instructions on the paint-bottle to see how long this will take. If needed, spray a thin layer of varnish to set the paint.
Voila! You can create all kinds of useful, beautiful and valuable new things from old items around your house. If you need some inspiration, just google “upcycling ideas” online and soon your creative juices will be flowing!
Environmental Protection in the Caribbean would like to thank Joga for providing the space and helping hands for the workshop, Chef Jackie for her time and effort in making an abundance of delicious dishes, Antillean Liquors for providing Cupcake wine to sip on during the event, and all the amazing participants who came out to upcycle.
Contributed by Laura Bijnsdorp
