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"The home-design world has long been eco-friendly, appreciating antique furniture, ancient rugs, and vintage tapestries, fabrics and trimmings," writes Brittany Edwards in the Dallas Morning News. "But today, the industry's green ways are hitting new levels: Not only are discarded wares for sale, but they are being reworked with sometimes surprising results known as upcycling."
A term coined by William McDonaugh and Michael Braungart in their book, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, upcycling is "the process of converting an industrial nutrient (material) into something of similar or greater value, in its second life. Aluminum and glass, for example, can usually be upcycled into the same quality of aluminum and glass as the original products." Wiki adds: "Upcycling is a component of sustainability in which waste materials are used to provide new products."
Upcycling, for example, is found in the realms of furniture and fashion and art. Even the airlines are taking off with the idea.
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Green Glossary: Downcycling
PET Bottles: Upcycled Watter Bottles at designboom
How to Upcycle Gift Cards
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