The Upcyclopedia

K is for Keyboards

2012-06-09T02:47:00.004-07:00

Source: Borganic on Folksy

The humble computer keyboard often gets overlooked when we think about computer technology, but it's always been there, even now, just under the screen. And they've acutally changed alot since the days of floppy discs. Some of them are in two parts, some are all curvy like space ships and some of them are completely hypothetical touch screen pixels that don't even get bits of crisps stuck inbetween. I remember when the keys were ten feet tall and you could lose whole pencil sets next to the massive return button. So what happened to all of those keypads? Since the introduction of the Europe's, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive (they love a catchy name) consumers and retailers should now be sorting these and other tech bits into special recycling feeds so that the bits of precious metal and heavy plastic can be used for more techy stuff in the future. But there's nothing to stop you from making quirky with your qwerty before it heads off to the scrap heap.....

The Power is Yours

Source KeyedUp on Etsy

Source: Borganic at Folksy

The crafters at Folksy and Etsy have been getting busy making blinging baubles from F4s and power points. Get your geek on with a selection of silver plated Mac-tastic jewellery from KeyedUp is the perfect accessory for the chic eco geek. Each ring, necklace, earring, or cufflink is handmade from recycled computer keyboards mounted on hand-cut Sterling Silver of Stainless Steel. Borganic is the work of crafter Judy Innes of Edinburgh, who uses recycled and reclaimed materials to create broaches and earrings. Borganic likes to mix it up and their Keyboard broaches include recycled foam, latex and even wallpaper.

Qwerty Interiors

Source: Brood

Source: Design Milk

Recycled keyboards aren't the first thing that you think of when you think of sleek interior design but here a few surprising entries from across the web. Tecoart's iMac keyboard Pendulum Clocks would make a great accessory to the Macquarium. Add to it the Wolfgang Keyboard Bench by Nolan Herbut, made from 2000 pressable keyboard keys, and you've got yourself one green office space.

S is for Shelving

2012-05-30T05:53:00.000-07:00

Source Stella Bleu at etsy.com

As upcycling projects go, shelving is one of the most versatile means of creating something new from something old and kinda flat. Within a home, a creative display can become more than just a storage unit, it can become a conversation piece. There seem to be very few limits on what makes good upcycled shelving.

Guttering

This entry was submitted to us by my good friends, The Doyle Family from Abby's World. They're ever inventive and this bit of DIY is a terribly inspired way to display their little girl's bounty of books.

Upcycled Rain Guttering into Childrens' Bookshelves

Recycled Rain Guttering into Children's Bookshelves

Suitcases

Part art installation, part shelving unit, this is the creation of self professed 'Martha Stewart of Junk' and editor-in-chief of Fleamarket Style magazine Ki Nassauer. Made from vintage suitcases, this is a beautiful way to display the spoils of one's travels.

Source Apartment Therapy

Industrial Piping

Designer Stella Bleu proves that upcylcled industrial piping is a remarkably flexible material for creating new and interesting shapes for bookshelves. Both rugged and contemporary, each shelf is made from salvaged piping and also works as a lamp. Stella Bleu's pipe designs also extend to creating clever clothing storage solutions, lighting and sculptures.

Source: Tree Hugger

Source Stella Bleu on etsy.com

J is for Jumbo Jet!

2012-05-28T10:48:00.001-07:00

Source: David Hertz Architects

Yeah that's right, flying in the air, please put your chairs in their upright and locked positions: Jumbo Jets. For better or for worse, since Boeing first invented the jumbo jet back in 1971, we have been using these epic machines to propell ourselves all over the globe. But what exactly happens to them when the wear and tear of travelling at more than 700 miles an hour starts to take its toll? Chances are at one point they'll end up in one of the many aircraft boneyards dotted around America or be dismantled by companies like Air Salvage International in the UK. If carried out with enthusiasm up to 97% of these mostly metal machines can be recycled for future use. At military facilities like 309th AMARC, the most common use for an old jet is making a new jet, but looking around the web, we've found some terribly clever upcycled commercial jets.

The Wing House

Source: David Hertz Architects


Source: David Hertz Architects

Wing house is the brain child of the team at California's David Hertz Architects. The Malibu home is super green, constructed of an entire Boeing 747 and additional materials made from 100% post-consumer waste. Add to that the building uses solar power, radiant heating, natural ventilation and high performance heat mirror glazing, and you've got yourself one high flying home.

Fuselage Furniture

Source Moto Art

Ok, so what do you put in your recycled airplane house? Upcycled airplane furniture of course! Where do you get it? Well, team over at Moto Art have been bending, shaping and cutting parts of passenger planes almost anything you can think of: sofas, beds, bars, desks, lamps, mirrors - the list goes on. They are particularly good at getting that mirror finish that is so evocative of the early days of passenger planes.

High Flying Hostel

Sweden's Jumbo Stay hotel is located near the airport in the town of Arlanda. The hostel is made from a converted Boeing 747-212B with 27 rooms and 76 beds. Not surprisingly, the hostel has become somewhat of a land mark in the town and special destination for visitors from around the world.

Source: Jumbo Stay

Source: JumboStay

I is for Ink Pen

2012-05-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

Ink Pens - ok, maybe it's a bit of a stretch - but we use tons of Bics and Biro pens each year, literally tons, and we have yet figure out where to recycle ink pens successfully because they contain so many tiny bits of plastic, metal and ink. So what do you do when there isn't an easy solution? Get creative.

The Pen Guy

Costas Shuler is the owner and operator of the aptly named, Mercedes Pens, auto mobile. Way back in 2005 Shuler, also known as 'The Pen Guy', had an ingenious idea of how to recycle some 10,000 ink pens and marker pens -simply glue them on to his 1981 Mercedes! His pen car is now world famous and he has become an advocate for recycling and reclaiming. He's even set up his own Pen Recycling facility, and by that I mean that he's got a PO Box where you can send your empty pens to him for use on the road or in his special Pen Guy appearances. He's also raising money this year to put together a collection of 'Pentings' from the 60,000+ pens that he's collected from around the world.

You can put your pens to good use at : The Pen Guy - P.O.Box 994 - Forestville, CA 95436

Give to the 60,000 Pen Project

Need more inspriration?

This ink pen chandelier made of a few hundred Bic pens by enPiezaÃ would make a beautiful compliment to some of the recycled hanger chandeliers we've seen.

Or make a fashion statement with this pen cap coat by Maison Martin Margiela.

Source: Ecouterre

H is for Hangers

2012-05-24T08:31:00.000-07:00

Source: Curbly

Source: Inhabitat

Source: Karolo

A beautiful selection of designs using the common coat hanger. Everyone knows that a clothes hanger makes a great aerial antenna but these designs from Organelle Design, Natalie Sampson and 1961 EcoDesign are on just of the hook!

Repurposed for a reason?
We use a lot of hangers in the West? How many? It's a hard to say for certain, but in February 2012, M&S celebrated the success of their charity hanger recycling drive which, in only six months, saw 100 million clothes hangers from Marks & Spencers shoppers recycled in aid of UNICEF. The campaign was a great success - simply add in turn in the hanger from your purchase at the til - and helped raise £370,000 for the charity's imminently worthy water project, but isn't that a quite a lot of hangers? You'd be surprised. Way back in 2008, it was reported that in the US alone, the nation's fashionistas and clothing retailers were chucking away more than 8 billion hangers, enough to fill the Empire State building.

Why so many hangers?
It's pretty simple. Cheap imports. Most of the clothing that comes into Western shopping outlets comes already placed on a cheap plastic hanger. So the shop hangs it up, gives it to us and then - because it's not really usable beyond this point - the hanger gets chucked away. Because of their composite material, many of the hangers that are used in the retail industry are not actually recyclable, however, in England, retailers are starting get their act together, with supermarket giants Sainsburys reusing 4,297,935 hangers and recycling a further 16,351,005 in 2011.

A is for Apple iMac Aquarium

2012-05-23T14:39:00.000-07:00

The Apple iMac Macquarium is the brain child of American Macman, tinkerer, pet lover and all round eco hero, Jake Harms. He's taken the classic iMac design and literally breathed new life into it, aquatic life that is. And his Macquarium kits mean that even if you've upgrade to something more sleek there's no need to throw out that iMac that got you through college. Ah memory, I mean memories. Get a look at the full gallery on Inhabitat.

P is for Parking Shelter

2012-05-22T16:30:00.003-07:00

This clever entry comes to me from some of my favourite people over at Apartment Therapy, via my new obsession, Colossal. What we have here is a massive collection of plastic bottles filled with coloured water to create the most beautiful car port I've ever seen. As they are suspended from strings, I would like to think that when they sway in the wind, they create a sound that is part wave, part alto wind chime.

G is for Games Console

2009-07-11T14:13:00.001-07:00

This is the award winning Reee Chair created by UK designers Pli from 100% recycled games consoles. Along with being quite comfortable and terribly sleek, each chair saves 2.4 kg of plastic from land fill by giving extended play to 9 consoles.

The chair's name is a reference to an industry term for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment or WEEE, and the 2007 regulation that requires local authorities and companies in the UK to recycle it. As the mobile phones, computer monitors, and photocopiers accumulate, I'm sure we can look forward to more interesting reincarnations of techno waste.

E is for elephant poo

2009-07-10T16:30:00.000-07:00

So, it turns out that you can make paper out of just about anything full of fibrous materials and pachyderm poo is...well, packed with it. One of the best things about elephant poo paper is that they do all of the mulching, so in that way there is very little waste.

There are a number of companies selling elephant poo journals and stationary, but few offer the colours available from the Great Elephant Poo Poo Paper Company's collection available at Nature's World .

F is for Fire hose

2009-07-10T15:59:00.001-07:00

Ah firemen. Everyday heroes running into burning buildings to rescue us mere mortals, collecting our cats from trees they shouldn't be in and always willing to demonstrate the dangers of the chip pan at a village fete.

And of course there are their hoses, those big, strong hoses. After working hard for years, saving all those lives, it seems a shame to toss them away like common trash! No! We must stand up for the hose, like the hose stood up for us.

Belts, wallets, handbags, candle holders, place mats, have been created by E&KO from the UK's finest fire hoses. Possibly one of the most durable, and honourable, materials you'll come across.

D is for Diodes

2009-07-10T15:13:00.000-07:00

So I tried to figure out what a diode was from my beloved Wikipedia and the entry was far too complicated for my tiny english speaking brain. Lucky for me, someone, specifically Tom Drinkwater at Art is Resistors, has made these shiny semi conductors into seriously stylish jewelry.

F is for Flip Flop

2009-07-01T12:14:00.000-07:00

That's right: flip flops! This fabulous menagerie is created from a regular supply of flip flops which wash up on the African shoreline. The company which makes them, UniquEco, started in Nairobi, Kenya, and has collected more than 150,000 from around the world. Along with these delightful creatures, they make jewelry, handbags and lifesized sculptures of whales!

Available in the UK from The Recycle Warehouse.

C is for Cable Reel

2009-07-01T09:48:00.000-07:00

A reely(predictable I know) impressive design from The Recycle Warehouse made from used cable reels. Each chair is adjustable with three different slouching possiblities on the rocker and two positions on the lounger. I dig the Pac Man shape on the rocker.

B is for Bicycle Parts

2009-06-29T16:41:00.000-07:00

Bedford based Trash-d have created lots of wonderful and functional items made from reclaimed bicycle chains, sprockets, cogs and rims. They've got candle holders, bottle openers and bracelets, but my favourite thing by far is their Desktop Pendulum Clock .

T is for Tyre Swing

2009-06-29T16:14:00.000-07:00

These backyard swing has been around the block more times then I can count, but there life in the old horse yet. Created by Wildlife Creations International, each is made from a recycled tire and transformed into a brand new plaything! It was even featured on Treehugger!