Upcycling is a growing trend that’s still under the radar for some. Simply, it’s all about taking old objects and furniture, and adding your own creativity and craft to make it something new, unique and beautiful.
Upcycling Day is all about celebrating the art of upcycling. However, with that art also comes the focus on sustainable use of household goods, recycling items instead of being wasteful, and the many different ways we can reuse things that we might think are completely useless at first glance.
History of Upcycling Day
Though the term has been around since the 90s, upcycling first rose to prominence when it started trending in 2002. Even before then, people have been finding new uses for old things since time immemorial.
Since our first ancestors roamed on two feet, it’s been natural to reuse our possessions and find new ways to benefit from them. It’s only since modern society dawned that we started chucking a lot more away.
The book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking The Way We Make Things, released in 2002 by architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart, brought upcycling into the modern vernacular. Not only did it have all kinds of tips on upcycling, the book itself was upcycled from plastic and soy, which was used to form the ink.
Since then, upcycling has caught the world’s imagination. Both those dedicated to finding sustainable ways of living to save the planet and the more artistically inclined have been coming together to find all new ways to use the old things cluttering our lives and filling our waste dumps.
Upcycling Day naturally arose as a way to bring attention to the craze and to encourage everyone and anyone to get involved in throwing less away and upcycling more.
How to celebrate Upcycling Day
If you want to celebrate Upcycling Day, then getting your hands dirty and actually upcycling something is the easiest way. There are tons of websites and guides that can introduce you to upcycling and show you how to make new furniture, accessories, and even a few handy tools out of things you might otherwise throw away.
Besides doing it yourself, you can join the upcycling workshops that can be found all over when the day arrives. Here, you’ll be taught how to create specific projects or be given the tools and help to upcycle furniture and items that you bring yourself.
It’s the perfect day to raise awareness of the issue that upcycling was designed to combat: the growing waste problem our modern society is continuously contributing to.
Teaching your kids about the effects of being wasteful and our impact on the community can be a good motivation to jumpstart their own love of upcycling. Sharing your upcycling stories on social media can raise awareness on a much bigger platform, too.
Artists and creatives get really involved on Upcycling Day, so you might them selling funky and unique furniture and goods. Buying some not only supports the cause but helps foster the creative community near you, as well.