Aquarelle
Starcrossed Seafarer
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- Jun 16, 2010
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I wasn't sure whether to put this in this forum or the science and tech one, because it's about nature and science. But anyway.
Here's something I've been pondering lately. I dig upcycling/repurposing. I love the idea of making something new out of something old, rather than putting the old thing into a landfill or even an incinerator. The dilemma I have is, when the material can be actually recycled, and upcycling involves adding additional components (glue, paint, etc) that might render it unrecyclable in the future, is it better to just recycle it? Let me give you some examples.
Take tin cans for instance. Metal can be recycled an infinite number of times. So say I have some tin cans that I decide to upcycle into cute flower pots or something, involving painting them and glueing ribbons or other trinkets onto them. In the future, when the upcycled flower pot is at the end of its life, can that can still be recycled, with the paint and stuff on it? I'm thinking paint probably yes, but maybe not ribbon or whatever.
And another example... this one is from my real life. When I moved into my new house, I found a huge tin of cinnamon sticks in the back of one of my cupboards. Having no idea how old they were, I didn't want to use them in cooking, so I made some Christmas ornaments out of them to sell. But now they have glue and ribbon on them-- should I have just composted them? Or since someone maybe bought them instead of newly-fabricated ornaments, is it a wash?
I wish I had the training/time/credentials/$ to study this and find out for real, but I'm not a researcher. I tried searching, but Google did not provide. So I'm just curious... what do people think?
Here's something I've been pondering lately. I dig upcycling/repurposing. I love the idea of making something new out of something old, rather than putting the old thing into a landfill or even an incinerator. The dilemma I have is, when the material can be actually recycled, and upcycling involves adding additional components (glue, paint, etc) that might render it unrecyclable in the future, is it better to just recycle it? Let me give you some examples.
Take tin cans for instance. Metal can be recycled an infinite number of times. So say I have some tin cans that I decide to upcycle into cute flower pots or something, involving painting them and glueing ribbons or other trinkets onto them. In the future, when the upcycled flower pot is at the end of its life, can that can still be recycled, with the paint and stuff on it? I'm thinking paint probably yes, but maybe not ribbon or whatever.
And another example... this one is from my real life. When I moved into my new house, I found a huge tin of cinnamon sticks in the back of one of my cupboards. Having no idea how old they were, I didn't want to use them in cooking, so I made some Christmas ornaments out of them to sell. But now they have glue and ribbon on them-- should I have just composted them? Or since someone maybe bought them instead of newly-fabricated ornaments, is it a wash?
I wish I had the training/time/credentials/$ to study this and find out for real, but I'm not a researcher. I tried searching, but Google did not provide. So I'm just curious... what do people think?