With holiday-related “to do’s” dancing in our heads, the scurrying and worrying has begun. What to get for family members who are impossible to buy for? Where to find classy or unique gift for your husband, wife or that special someone? If you want to be more green with this year’s gifts, check out Hipcycle.com, one of the leading online retailers for upcycled items. The term “upcycled” was coined in 2002 by William McDonaugh & Michael Braungart for their book  Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. Upcycling is the process of converting a material into something of similar or greater value, to a second life – using waste materials to create “new” useful products. Each Upcycled Woven Tin Bracelet is a one-of-a-kind It’s been called a greener way of recycling. Upcycling generally requires less energy than recycling, keeps materials once considered waste from going into landfills and reduces the need  to manufacture new products . I’ve written about upcycling in the past in reference to TerraCycle and its take-back Brigades and Upcycle the Gyres, which is working to upcycle ocean plastic debris into diesel, gasoline, and kerosene.

We’re always on the hunt for new ways to protect Mother Earth and recycle anything we can. When we found TerraCycle we got pretty excited. We’ve recently partnered with TerraCycle who is on a mission to eliminate the idea of waste. The collected waste is then converted into new products, ranging from recycled park benches to upcycled backpacks. Here is a list of the items that we can now collect: Chip Bags – Any empty brand or size chip bag. Candy Wrappers – Any brand and size candy wrappers, excluding candy boxes or gum packaging. Toothpaste Products – Any brand used toothpaste tubes, toothbrushes and plastic toothbrush packaging, excluding cardboard. Writing Utensils – Any brand and any size pen, pencils, mechanical pencils, wooden pencils, markers and highlighters, sharpie and dry eraser markers; just to name a few. No crayons please. Thanks to the help of our File Creation team we’ve printed up some fun boxes around the office to collect these new items. If you’d like to know more about TerraCycle please visit their website.

¿Tienes hijos/as y te quedas en el puente de diciembre en Madrid? ¿Quieres que se diviertan y aprendan al tiempo?. Si es así, IFEMA propone, entre el 5 el 9 de diciembre,DABADUM, Salón del Ocio Infantil en Familia, el mejor espacio de ocio de Madrid con actividades lúdico-educativas y pedagógicas, para que los más pequeños disfruten con sus familias durante el puente de diciembre.

DABADUM, el salón de ocio infantil en familia con actividades lúdicas y pedagógicas, llega a IFEMA del 5 al 9 de diciembre para que los más pequeños puedan disfrutar de un puente lleno de diversión y aprendizajes junto a sus familiares, con una variada oferta de talleres, actividades y  espectáculos.

Tom Szaky, creador y presidente de TerraCycle, considera que la basura no existe. Tal y como apunta “el 99% de los productos que consumimos serán considerados basura en menos de un año desde que los adquirimos; sin embargo, podemos contemplar este problema como lo hace la naturaleza y entonces la basura no existiría”. La naturalezatiene un sistema creado en el que lo que es basura para un sistema, es simplemente la comida para otro sistema diferente. Este es el gran procedimiento de la naturaleza, y es la idea que persigue TerraCycle. “Nosotros no vemos basura, vemos desechos con los que producir nuevos productos que son más baratos y respetuosos con el medio ambiente” apunta Szaky.  

TerraCycle, a small upcycling company based in New Jersey, has launched its new program, Cigarette Waste Brigade, which aims to collect various wastes from cigarettes and tobaccos – cigarette butts, rolling papers, loose tobacco pouches, plastic wrapper, foil, and ashes. Cigarette butts are one of the wastes that are most of the time disposed of improperly. In fact, about 65% of cigarettes are littered by smokers and cigarette is the number one waste recovered from oceans with a total of 52 million cigarette filters in 25 years. TerraCycle, known for collecting and processing hard-to-recycle wastes to produce various consumer products, has added another item to their list. In their Cigarette Waste Brigade program, they allow cigarette smokers (strictly 19 years old and above), bar and restaurant owners, building managers, and litter clean-up groups to participate by having their cigarette wastes collected and get paid in return in terms of charitable gifts or cash.