extreme recycling

there’s almost no such thing as true recycling, because almost all post-consumer materials are re-made into a material of lesser quality (down-cycling). but RE-USE is very easy and allows an material to retain its functionality through multiple product life-cycles. unfortunately, people don’t seem to value re-use as much as they could – until now, when companies are starting to turn re-use into branding. take worn again (above), who advertise their products and the products they come from. or terracycle(below), who solicits empty 20 oz soda bottles to fill with composted fertilizer (motto: we sell trash). now if only up-cycling could become profitable…