What is upcycling?

Is upcycling just one of those buzz-words that comes and goes or could it be the most on-trend way to save the planet?

Well, if you've ever planted cherry tomatoes in an old watering-can or hung a plate on your wall then you are all ready an expert. I hadn't come across the  term untill a year or so ago when it sneaked into fashion with its little pal 'shabby chic'. The general idea is to take something that isn't useful as it is and give it a new life as something useful or pretty. There are some fabulous websites about with ideas for upcycling like upcycling.co.uk, but I've found some great books in charity shops from the make-do and mend years. A couple of my most loved upcycled belongings are my toilet planter full of spring bulbs (pictures to follow on flowering), my tea-cup candles and jigsaw piece earrings. I still have a long way to go -the late Elspeth Thompson (to whom I owe in part my love of gardening) even created a home from two victorian railway carriages.

Though the maxim is useful and catchy reduce, reuse and recycle aren't created equally. 

• Reducing is the most eco (-nomical, ological) of all. The less you buy/use, the less there is that has to be made and go into landfill. 
• Reusing is at the heart of upcycling. If you don't want something anymore and it still works, give it away or sell it. You've probably heard of ebay, freecycle and gumtree but why not give misi a go for your vintage (20 years or older) pieces. If it can't be reused for its original purpose (its handle has come off, it no longer holds water) then upcyling comes in. 
• Recycling can then be considered. Recycling is a whole lot better than landfill and a whole lot easier than reducing, but for the entirely green household it can be a last resort. 

Think for a minute about what happens when you recycle. You put your items in a big plastic box (probably a necessary evil) and the council drives (again...arguably unavoidably) down your road at low speeds in a huge van (...). Your unwanteds are picked up, centralised and melted down at enormous temperature and remoulded. This all takes an enormous amount of energy (hello fossil fuels) but is much much better than non-renewable materials like plastic ending up in land-fill.

This is largely with the exception of paper. Which literally grows on trees. Reducing, for a renewable material like this, is the only real way of proceeding in my opinion. It is difficult to reuse more than once, upcycling options are very limited and recycling is fraught with controversy. For example, the US energy information administration states that  "a paper mill uses 40 percent less energy to make paper from recycled paper than it does to make paper from fresh lumber.". This may be true but is far from the whole picture. For a start, it doesn't take into account the energy used getting it there. Nor does it give us any idea of the carbon impact. If trees had been planted to provide that paper in a renewable way, they would have captured carbon throughout their life. You get the idea, its an ethical minefield. In the words of the fabulous Flobots, though, 'if you are thinking, you are winning'. Everything you don't put into land-fill is a success.

And why should you do any of this?Money and the planet. It is eco in both senses. In the middle of the recession we're in, everyone needs to tighten their belts. If that means planting bulbs in something vintage rather than a plastic, orange, patio planter then I think its going to be a great decade.