Upcycling: Books

There are always countless books coming into The WCSS Re-Use-It Centre. A lot of these books are holiday and travel reading, with plenty of best-sellers and modern classics pumping through the store at a steady rate. For $2 a book you can't really go wrong: read it, pass it onto a friend, take it around the world with you to read on trains and planes...

We do also find ourselves with large pile of books that are slightly less desirable, for various reasons: water damage, torn pages, outdated knowledge, or super-specific information that Whistler folk have often escaped past lives in the outside world to avoid.

I shudder at the very thought of trashing books. Having grown up reading and having majored in English Lit at university, books are friends and teachers to me. So I'd rather avoid sending them to the compactor where and when possible.

I've found some amazing ideas for upcycling those books that are no longer reading material, for whatever reason.

Some artistic upcycling ideas include:

This tree:

This dress and more at this blog:

Or more practical ideas, like book shelves made of books! Find the how-to here.

Try a plant potted into a classic novel (plus more upcycling ideas for plant holders here).

Or, go all out and use books as bricks! This is the counter of my favorite bookstore in Melbourne, Australia.

Ladies and gentlemen, the world is your oyster! Come down to The Re-Use-It Centre and rescue a few books to create something amazing and unique. Perfect projects for those rainy Spring days...

Enjoy.


Helen, Manager of The WCSS Re-Use-It Centre

Upcycling: An Introduction

The resources we have at our fingertips here at The WCSS Re-Use-It Centre in Whistler are seemingly endless. We re-sell lightly used clothing, housewares, electronics, books, movies, sports equipment and so much more. It is awesome to give items a second life, to follow our mantra of goods out of landfill, but it always seems we could be doing more.

On a recent investigation into recycling possibilities, we have put some more time into researching the concept of "Upcycling", Recycling's sister concept. Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or higher environmental value.

Where recycling breaks items down, upcycling remakes and constructs. Sound crazy?

Imagine you have a pile of scratched LPs. Instead of throwing them away, why not make them into a bowl? Scratched records can be made into bookends or bags or even a cake stand. A leaky rubber boot might make a great planter just by adding a few more holes.

There is an amazing online culture surrounding upcycling. Any make-it-yourself tutorial you care to think of as videos, step-by-step photos and how-to blogs.

We're excited about it. In the next months we will be showing you all a bunch of projects for those upcoming rainy spring days. We'll help you find the bits and pieces you need to make awesome additions to your home and a sustainable addition to your life!