Turning trash to treasure—the concept of repurposing trash

THIS week’s column piece is yet again another discussion on the earth and our role to help clean it up. Since the dawn of the industrial era, we’ve been increasingly polluting the place we are supposed to call home. We are actively killing the place that gives us life. I often use this space to speak on social justice and issues but how much good will that do if I don’t also incorporate the very ground we stand on? It makes no sense we make all this progress as a species, only to not have a home at the end of it all. As discussed last week, every day the earth produces millions of tons of waste. We simply dump it and get on with life.

With that in mind, I have witnessed people turning “trash” into “treasure” or “upcycle” their waste. I remembered for my Grade Nine Examination many moons ago, we were asked to make household decor or items with recycled materials. I am sure that my broken CD and plastic bottle floral vase is on top of some teacher’s desk instead of in a dump site. At the time, I didn’t conceptualise it but, yet still, I appreciated the sense of purpose it allowed me to feel at the time. The