By Starre Vartan, Source: Mother Nature Network

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Nathan Devine’s ReTrash is one of those projects that’s such a great idea, it has grown much bigger than him. As an Australian kid during the ’80s, Devine (that’s him, pictured above) helped his dad in his landscaping and carpentry business, but his favorite part of the week was going to the garbage dump, where he would pull useful things from the trash, fix them up and resell them. Fast-forward to the present, and Devine continued this idea of turning trash to treasure; he has constructed a shed from old pallets and a garden box from an old window (see below).

Now, the online community that formed around the project, ReTrash, is soon to be published as a book of the same name, including both Devine’s projects and the work of 82 designers and artists from 20 countries around the world who all see trash as Devine does: fuel for creativity.

According to the site: “ReTrash seeks to inspire and challenge people to think about how we can reuse waste in creative and innovative ways. It is the work of a three-year collaboration, during which time ReTrash has received hundreds of book contributions from people all over the world.”

The upcycling projects below are just some of those that will be featured in an upcoming book about ReTrash (check at the bottom for more details about the publishing, and how you can be a part of it!).
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With the rise of e-books, real paper books are being dumped by the ton. But with interesting colors and patterns, and great old cover designs and fonts, they can be made into all sorts of things, including this chair by designer Alvaro Tamarit.
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One of Nathan Devine’s own upcycling projects is this awesome planter made from an old window; it’s a cold frame for spring seedlings (when the glass is closed), and then converts to a regular planter when plants get bigger.
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Dirk Vander Kooij’s chair is made entirely from recycled plastic bottles that are melted down and used as base material in a 3-D printer; the device lays each layer of plastic down one at a time (you can see the grooves in the image above).
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These fun, hard-sided bags made from recycled cardboard leave room for all kinds of needful things inside, and Jeff McCann’s original exterior illustrations make these bags one-of-a-kind.

Read the full article at: Mother Nature Network