Upcycling is reusing waste or unwanted materials without destroying them in order to create something new. Here is a chart of common material and some ideas of DIY Crafts you can do at home
| Recyclable Material | Ideas/ Crafts |
| Bread Clips | – Cord Organizers |
| Broken Mugs | – Pencil Holders – Plant drainage – mini plant pot |
| Candle Jars | – Fill jars with party favors for social events – Donate to a school or second hand store – Refill with new candles |
| Cassette Tapes | |
| Coffee Grounds | – Compost – Use to keep stray cats out of your garden – Use as exfoliator in homemade skincare – Plant fertilizer |
| Cookie / Biscuit Tins | – Coffee bean/grinds storage – Earrings – Homemade sewing kit – DIY Christmas ornaments |
| DVDs & CDs | – Mobile – Wind chime |
| Film Negatives | – Make a lamp shade – Create a purse using negatives – Give to a film collector |
| Food glass jars | – Drinking glass – Storage containers – DIY snow globes |
| Glass from Picture Frames | – Get mirror spray paint and create mirrors – Use mirror spray paint on broken glass for mosaic art |
| Old Picture Frames | – Framed display board |
| Old Stamps | – Use for craft supplies |
| Pill Bottles | – Donate to animal shelters or veterinarians (call to confirm first) – Use as spice, tea, sugar, coffee containers for hiking |
| Plastic Bottle Caps | – Craft material |
| Plastic Utensils | – Use for craft supplies – Donate to school or artist who needs items for supplies – Donate to 2nd hand craft store |
| Scrap Clothing | – Cut into square, use as cleaning rags – Cut into shreds, use as pillow stuffing – Make dog toys with scrap fabric – Yarn for crafts (look up t-shirt yarn) |
| Twist Ties | – Cable management -Securing plants to posts/cages |
| Unwanted or Damaged Eyeglasses | – Mini photo frames |
| Unwanted or duplicate photographs | – Cut and / or paste to make magnets, badges, ornaments, etc. – make a college – make postcard/greeting cards – Give to a film collector |
| Used Greeting Cards | – Make a college using cards – Use cards again, cover up previous messages – Cut down to use at gift tags – Donate to schools for crafting |
| VHS tapes | – Go to Reddit/VHS give tapes away to collectors |
| Wearable Clothing | – Take to homeless shelter – Take to a thrift store – Give away in yard sale group on Facebook Marketplace |
| Wrapping Paper Scraps | – Use again – Make origami |
| Banana skins | – Plant fertilizer |
| Any paper | – Make handmade paper for crafts – Weave into baskets |
| Food plastic containers | – Pots for plants (make drainage holes and use lid as saucer) |
| Packaging paper | – Wrapping paper (possible to paint designs) |
| Old/stained/ripped sheets | – Dye another color – Make beeswax wraps (only with cotton fabric) – Rags – Rip into yarn for crafts |
| Newspaper | – Wrapping paper – Weave into baskets – Compost |
| Plastic bags | – Make yarn and use for crafts – Use as trash bag |
| Cardboard boxes | – Biodegradable seedling pots |
| Old books | – Black out poetry |
| Toilet paper roll | – Cable organizer – Cutting it makes a great phone holder |
| Wooden Pallets | – Bookshelf |
| IBC Totes | – Water Storage (be careful not to use hazmat totes) |
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