All posts by Stef

Plastic – reduce, reuse, upcycle

Plastic is a crazy material. In comes in various forms and is omnipresent. Once you start looking for it you see it everywhere. Packaging of food and drinks, household tools, our tooth brush, even in our cloths in the form of polyester. The exact components are often a secret by the producer. The main component however is raw oil, a scarce resource. Once turned into plastic it takes hundreds of years to decompose. Since we use it much and only shortly it is a real environmental problem. In the decomposing process micro plastic enters the food chain. It fills the stomach of animals and carries bacteria. Through meat, hot food and drinks on plastic it enters our body. Studies have shown that plastic has entered out blood stream and can lead to infertility. The documentary Plastic Planet gives a good insight on its reach.

The best way is to avoid plastic as much as possible. A simple start is buying fresh products e.g. at the market and bringing your own bag. When shopping elsewhere I try to buy products in larger packages or in paper bags or cartons. Pioneers, experimenters and fore thinkers are showing that there are many ways to reduce it with homemade beauty or cleaning products.

Another problem is it’s short lifetime. Plastic bags for example are used 25min on average. Upcycling them means adding value to them and making them usable longer. Plastic bags can be ironed together into a robust larger plastic sheet or they can be knitted, braided and crocheted with. They also make for good flower pots. Plastic bottles and milk cartons can be turned into a vertical garden. More inspiration can be found here.

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If half the World used a Cup…

Once a month we women go a little back to our mammal roots. Our fertile body aches and its clock rings. In the process we loose around 35 ml menstrual fluid (Wikipedia) – an average tea cup is 250 ml, so 35 ml does not seem much. For this we use tampons , seemingly clean and quick. In ten years one uses at least 1.200 tampons (10 tampons per cycle x 12 months x 10 years). At least. Now that is disgusting!

While working in London I discovered the Mooncup – a reusable menstrual cup that catches the blood. Recently I tried The Ruby Cup (white one) and Lady Cup (red one) for a comparison.

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All cups serve the same function of catching menstrual fluid. They have the great advantage of no smell, one-time cost and multiple uses. I can even go swimming – those cups are constructed to sit in place while being unnoticeable. The Mooncup was the first one I got to know off and happily used it for 5 years. The Ruby Cup is the same size and comfort. It comes with a great cleaning help that folds together. I am a big fan of this gadget. The Lady Cup is a little smaller. It might need more emptying but it is a “light weight”. Both are great!

The white Ruby Cup & the pink Lady Cup

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The little stem is used for removal and can be shortened. A friend of mine cut it off completely – that depends one  your preferred removal technique.

 

 

Ruby Cup with cleaning help

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The pink cleaning help folds together for easy storage. At the end of the cycle the cup can be boiled in it to be sterilized without even touching the pot.

 

 

How does a menstrual cup work: it takes some time to figure out how to use one and where it has to sit. Years of tampon use have trained ones’ hand. A cup does not go far in, it is bend a little, inserted and closes up. Once a day its content is emptied in the toilet and cleaned with water and soap. At the end of the cycle I boil it for 5 min and store it in a cotton bag. My friend just puts it in the cotton bag and washes it in the washing machine – its just some blood! She is a doctor and has used it for many years also: “don’t worry, things don’t just get lost in your vagina, especially not if you have a healthy relationship to it”. For a medical perspective it is worth to read her comment to my first article on the Mooncup here.

Those reusable cups come in varying sizes as a larger one is usually needed after pregnancy. Unfortunately not many shops sell them. But you can get them online e.g. on amazon or directly on the cups websites: www.ruby-cup.com or www.ladycup.eu.

Thank you for offering something with so many win-win’s!

Cable on Chip Card

A nice and good looking way to organize your cables. These ear phone cables had a rough life roaming through a backpack. Now they live on a plastic card. The shorter ends of the card need to be curved in slightly. Rough edges can be polished with sand paper. The end bits of the ear phone best are slid in a hole with a cut to the outside. Look at the pictures and do it. 10min and you have a cool cable carrier.

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Upcycling Art in Berlin

Now I do Upcycling as a hobby. What comes across my way is worked with as a resource, I do workshops and I gift my friends with the upcycled goods. But some people have turned it into their job and are professionalizing the field. In the search for a 50th birthday present for my aunt I went to visit some.

El Reinventor for example is upcycling instruments and other antique things into light objects. He also works with bicycle parts, coat hangers and whatever you bring to him. One of his specialties is that he works with people on their old objects and turns them into something really unique.

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At the Bright Side Werkstatt, Brunnenstraße 26 in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin you find him. El Reinventor. It’s worth a visit to look at his art, even better if you feel like working on something with him. Its a workshop and gallery in one. He has some great tools, and an even greater humor and creativity.

When I came to visit him he showed me around and shared some backdoor secrets. We then sat in front of his gallery in the sun where he showed me how to turn a coat hanger into an angle holding my toilet paper. Gold!

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Even better I found his light installation from telescope legs and a trumpet. For more information visit him online www.elreinventor.com or on facebook www.facebook.com/elReinvent0r

Just around the corner is the Upcycling Fashion Store. From clothes to accessories and gifts they have a large range of things from different artists in and around Berlin. I found little wallets from leather gloves, handbags from offset printing covers,… They also organize events and report on the latest news in the upcycling scene on www.upcycling-fashion.com. There is now even an upcycling fashion road map for Berlin. Thank you!

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Vertical gardens from upcycled material

When there is not much room for a garden you have to go up. Vertical gardens are great for small spaces. Ideally you choose plants that climb up like beans and peas. But strawberries also work. It depends on the construction. What have you got around?

There are many materials that can be used in upcycling. One example are vertical gardens from plastic bottles like described in this post: Strawberry Tower from Plastic.

verticalstrawberry garden vertical plastic garden

Other materials are milk cartons strapped to a fence or wooden pallets like in these pictures taken at urban gardens in Berlin:

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Prinzessinengarten Berlin / Vertical Garden from Wood Pallets

Another way to use wood pallets is shown in the below picture, a more professional approach with an irrigation system.

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Klunkerkranich Berlin / Vertical Garden from pallets

Drink cartons accumulate over time in most households. Turned upside down they work as flower pots. When leaving the cap part open at the bottom it is a perfect drainage system. They can be hung onto a fence or balcony.

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Prinzessinengarten Berlin / Vertical Garden from Milk Cartons

The sky is the limit.

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Upcycling Workshops

Come around for an upcycling workshop:

06.09.2014 Re-Use Day, Prinzessinnengarten Berlin
A mix of many things you can see on this blog e.g. crocheting with shirts, knitting with plastic bags, hair ties from stockings, etc. I will explain the upcycling process or upcycle with you. Bring some material or use what is there.

Past Workshops:

02.08.2014 Re-Use Day, Prinzessinnengarten Berlin
Making flower pots from plastic bags and other waste material.

08.-10.08.2014 Wilde Möhre Festival, 1h from Berlin
I will tell you about the ideas of upcycling and contributions to a sustainable lifestyle. Come and learn how to knit with plastic bags or crochet with your old shirts.

Re-Use Day, Prinzessinnengarten: 07.06.2014 – picture below

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Re-Use Day, Prinzessinnengarten Berlin:  05.07.2014

Serendubity Festival, 1h from Berlin: 18. & 20.07.2014

FESTIVAL CANCELLED

Upcycling is the idea of reusing “waste” materials for the creation of new objects of practical use, arts and decoration, contributing to the reduction of energy use, soil, water and air contamination. 

We turn milk cartons into herb gardens, plastic bottles into vertical strawberry fields and shoes into flower potsIf you rather green your neighbourhood make some seedballs with us and spread the special Berlin seed mix of colourful plants.

Lu, Steffi and Dia are going to upcycle with you to give your balcony and window board some green vibes. We mix our knowledge on permaculture design, natural resources and upcycling arts to design the eco-corner of serendubity with you. There will be material, bring your ideas and hands for creating with us! 

 

upcycled tent

Outdoor umbrella cover from an old tent

A while ago in a rush to go to a festival I bought a second hand tent. Only to realize it was broken and had some mould on the inside. The festival was great so the tent did not get used much. I did not want to use it as a tent again and replaced it with a tent I found at another festival when I volunteered for the cleanup. I noticed that a few people leave their broken tents on the venue, too lazy to pack and carry home. The festival team has to clean it up and threw it away. What a waste when there is so much material and reusable items on one tent. You can use the hooks, clips, zippers, bands, nets and bags for sewing and repairing projects. The bottom layer can be used as a tarp. The waterproof top can be a cover, the inner tent material can be a wind or sun shade. My first project besides cutting out the tarp — this umbrella cover:

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For sun shade we got a local secondhand umbrella through ebay. To save storage inside the house and leave the umbrella outside all season we needed a cover. I sewed this cover from the outer waterproof layer of a tent. I used a part that had a zipper for easy removal.

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Now the next project is to sew a sunshade triangle from the inner thinner fabric of the tent.

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Hotel for Insects

Insects pollinate flowers and regulate pests – it’s part of a natural cycle. Creating a habitat for a diversity of plants and animals supports this cycle (let nature do the work, she is more experienced with keeping a balance).

If you have trouble with aphids – commonly known as vine louse – you don’t really have an aphid problem, you have an earwig and Co. problem. Or rather a deficiency. By creating a habitat for these insects you can support biological pest control.

A really simple version of an insect hotel is build with a ceramic pot filled with straw and covered with a potato or onion net.

Hang it up on a tree or you balcony and talk about it!

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Have a question?

For any private messages or inquiries about upcycling workshops I offer please send an email through the below and I will get back to you.

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