Plarn – Have you heard of this stuff?

Evidently last night while I was sleeping there was a plarn revolution.  Yesterday I’d never even heard the word, and today it seems it’s EVERYWHERE!

Plarn (plastic yarn) is made from plastic grocery bags cut into strips then crocheted to create virtually anything – In this case we’re using a grocery bag to create … a grocery bag. 

Check out this link for a tutorial on how to create your own ecofriendly shopping bags.

DYK: It takes 1000 years for a plastic bag to decompose in a landfill?

I sometimes use the words upcycle and recycle interchangeably, much like Alanis Morissette uses ironic and coincidence? or some other word.

Today I want to talk about the similar sounding ? freecycle.

Freecycle.org is a great way to recycle your old items and pick up some great finds (wait for it?) for free! 

It?s a global nonprofit community that is all about reusing to keep good stuff out of landfills.  

An effective, smart idea made even greater when you consider that you don?t have to deal with craigslist freaks ? you know who you are.

Happy Halloween!

Whatever your celebratory beliefs concerning Halloween, of all the holidays, it is arguably the high holy day of upcycling.

I have personal knowledge of a single hot pink bed sheet purchased from Goodwill that was upcycled into a glam-ghost costume? which was accidently turned into more of a hot pink burka? then upcycled a third time into a super heroine cape for *use your announcer voice* Glam Girl!

? and all this in just one night!

I read an article by Tom Szaky proposing another option to the traditional ideas of upcycling.

The idea is brilliant: Collect Scotch Tape dispensers from the public and give them back to 3M to use for the exact same use they were before?tape dispensers.

Ok, so I?m inspired.

I don?t have a personal collection of tape dispensers laying about, but I?ve got a stack of PG&E return envelopes since I pay my bills online - I?m off to return them to PG&E. 

Admittedly billing envelopes are not as heady as tape dispensers, but we all do what we can.

Read the whole brilliant article at triplepundit.com

 I hate to shop, but…

? if you could find all manner of stuff you needed – everything from the brand name classic to the completely funky, and it was all arranged by item and color, in an immaculately clean shop and every time you bought something it helped people, you’d have to do it, right?

This my friends is the Goodwill store in Santa Rosa.

I got an amazingly cool new purse that I would have never purchased while it was on the rack in Macy’s and some equally fab shoes. And I came this close to rocking a pair of shoes i can only describe by tossing around words like; plastic coated, red, high heeled loafer and alligator.

And when I?m done using them, I?ll donate them. It?s the circle of life my friends.

Tremendous.

so nice it?s posted twice: taken from its-nin.livejournal.com

The term “upcycling” was coined by William McDonaugh and Michael Braugart in their book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. 

It’s also a much cooler way of saying, ??finding a way to use it again – preferably before recycling it.?

Most of us have been upcycling our whole lives. Ever scribble a shopping list on the back of an old AT&T envelope before tossing it in the recycle bin?  Or maybe your kids have made rainy day art projects with odds and ends from the craft drawer.  The point is, if you look around you?ll start to see it everywhere – and that’s important.

But it?s more than that.

There?s a larger definition, a bigger human picture ? we upcycle every time take something that has been used up and turn it into something that is useful; something that appeared valueless and give it a renewed purpose.

And sometimes we recreate a treasure.