Somewhere in the heart of America, a whole shipment of Lazy Susan circles had been ruined by a guy named Dale*. Maybe he was hungover or disgruntled. We don’t know the details. But suffice it to say that somehow a whole lot of holes got drilled in a whole lot of wrong places. And now the equivalent of a grove of trees was about to be jettisoned to a landfill without even once making it easier for hard-working American families to pass the taco toppings.

Nice going, Dale.

Upcycling For Dummies

But wait. “That wood is still good!” cries Hipcycle, seller of repurposed junk. All you have to do is cut the sides off the circles and nail them to the wall. Voila – floating shelves!

Upcycling, finding new uses for old things, has been around for hundreds of years — out of necessity. But Walmart and Amazon.com have all but killed the instinct to re-use in most Americans. When we’re done with something, we throw it away. If we need something, we buy it.

Tires, glass bottles, bike parts, flip flops, railroad ties — these are all things you might find at the dump. Heck, you might have thrown them away yourself. But Hipcycle rescues these materials from landfills by artistically retooling them for function and decoration around the home.

That’s how 50 chopsticks become a folding basket and a few old farmhouse beams become a coffee table. Wait, are those the handlebars of an old bicycle or a high-end candelabra?

Being Green is Not a Unique Selling Proposition

Andrew Sell, Chief Hipcycler, believes upcycled wares can do more than save landfill space. “We provide high quality, durable products that are inherently interesting,” Andrew told us. This is an important note of distinction for the Hipcycle model. Sell cool stuff because it’s cool, not because it’s eco-friendly or green — though that’s obviously cool, too.

“We want to appeal to the hardcore dark green consumer who will seek out green products, but also the light green consumer who cares about the environment, but who may not have the means or interest to seek out those products or pay more for them,” Andrew explained. “We also want to show the world ‘green’ doesn’t have to mean ‘ugly’ or ‘cheap.’”

Best of all, Hipcycle stuff doesn’t just look good — it starts conversations. Oh, this display bowl made out of welded metal? Well, there’s this woman who scours Wisconsin landfills for discarded washers…

Thank you, Hipcycle, for helping to reduce waste, proliferate beauty and make all of us sound exponentially cooler than we have any right to be.

*Dale’s name has been changed to protect his family from further shame.