Opportunity in a Land of Plenty
In most people’s minds, opportunity is not found in the trash. Well welcome, oh ye whose neighbors go through possessions faster than the seasons change, to the world of upcycling.
The term was first coined by William McDonough and Michael Braungart in their book Cradle To Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things and has now been applied to almost every category of stuff I can think of. Lucy Middleton covers up stains on her clothing by printing silkscreen designs over them - fixing her clothes as well as personalizing them with one stroke of her squeegee. The last Craft magazine I read showed me how to make custom shoes out of worn out ones (when the fabric is ripped or faded but the rubber part is still good). The folks at Buffalo Reuse are even upcycling houses (!) by taking abandoned and condemned wrecks and harvesting the usable bits to construct future projects. They call it “Hybrid Deconstruction” though and not surprisingly, you have to have training.
Upcycling is becoming more fashionable than celebrity pregnancies right now, all to the benefit of the planet and also to my bank account. Because the other advantage to upcycling is that you can have many things you want cheaply and easily, with very little effort or crafting ability - and you can make them cooler than they were in their previous incarnation. So I’m not suggesting anything as drastic as becoming a freegan, just that you mark your neighborhood’s big-object pick-up day on your calendar and take a walk around the night before.
For evidence, I bare my soul to you, or at least the contents of my bedroom: • 1 turn of the century antique Singer sewing table, found on trash day 3 blocks from home, now used as a computer table. • 3 Target “cubbies”, left behind by previous tenant, now placed side by side to form a long table w/ hidden book storage. • 1 wall clock that didn’t keep time until we replaced all its insides. • 1 cast iron… something. Salvaged from a building demolition in Manhattan by my best friend’s husband. It has curvy bits twirling at the edges like an art nouveau piece, and I now use it as a pretty rack to store & display my head-wraps (its twin lives in the kitchen and we hang pots and pans from it).
While upcycling clothing can take time and effort (both of which are always in short supply in NY), furniture requires only a walk, an active imagination and, if you live in a walk-up like I do, a few strong friends who will usually work in exchange for beer.
I am especially excited to impart this knowledge to you in the month of June, since summer in Brooklyn is usually a stoop sale waiting to happen and stoop sales usually have leftovers. Upcycling is not just about (re)making things, but also about rethinking things in a new way. Why can’t someone’s door become your table? I’m sure the person who made my cast iron thing didn’t envision a scarf rack. In the past (or at least my past) this sort of thing was known as “scavenging” and had a bad image - but nowadays it’s a proud example of the re-use craze, initially made popular by the movement to “reduce, reuse, recycle.” I’m all for the green movement but upcycling is better than recycling because it doesn’t turn a soda bottle into plastic in order to make another soda bottle, it turns a soda bottle into a self watering planter. And as for what it can do to your wardrobe and home interior… well try it and see.
