What is Upcycling?

Recent years have seen a rise in what’s being called ‘upcycling’, a new and improved form of recycling. Recycling generally involves taking one item and reducing it to its raw elements and then building it into something else, usually of lesser or equal value. Upcycling, is taking two or more items, and combining them to make something greater than the sum of its parts.

For example, take a broken wooden table top, and a sheet of toughened glass. Individually these items have little worth, the table is unable to function as a table and the glass is useful for looking through and not much else, however combining the two, results in a contemporary example of glass furniture with a stylish wooden base. That’s the basic idea of upcycling, instead of melting things down to start again, why not put things together to increase their life.

Upcycling has become popular for a couple of reasons. Generally (if we continue the glass topped wooden table example) its cheaper to buy a new glass top for an older wooden table than it would be to buy a completely new table, upcycling can save you a lot of money, especially if you’re refurbishing your office or redecorating your home. Upcycling, as well as being an easy way to save money, also has the added benefit of being environmentally friendly, so you can save the planet as well as your wallet.

Upcycling can create wholly new products, or simply give a new lease on life to an old one, there really is no drawback, and Futureglass is happy to be a part of the process. We have experience in converting old desk frames into new products, take for instance this reception desk,

which started off life as a wooden desk however the client wanted a desk that better represented their modern contemporary identity. Futureglass helped to convert their old desk into something more in line with what they wanted.

If you’re looking to breathe new life into an old product, or simply want to give an old desk a new look, contact us to see what we can do for you.