to hate the word 'up-cycling'?

[mousemates]

It drives me absolutely potty. What the actual fuck does it even mean? Isn't up-cycling just the same as recycling, really? Taking someone which was used up/going to be thrown out and using it for something else?

Why can't these rich fucking ponces just say up-cycling?

God, I'm in such a bad mood this morning and listening to some cunt on the radio going on about up-cycling some old shite has driven me around the bend.

Oh, and its in the dictionary and means something different to recycling.

yes very rude and not at all "light hearted"

Lemon No idea. I'm going to up-cycle some cold tap water into a cup of tea now.

That's just wow! I've just had a brainstorming session chat with the head of our global operations department my husband to see what we would have for lunch. I am going to forage look in the fridge to see if I can source find some cheese. I acquired found the bread already.

Nom fucking nom !

I raise an eyebrow when people put on Facebook that they are going on a road trip. Usually they are not undertaking a Jack Kerouac-esque adventure, they are getting in their car and driving straight to Reading to visit family.

And while I agree that language changes and adapts, I believe that this is different to sitting back and allowing the media twats to make up new words. If we aren't careful then things like totes amazeballs, holibobs and famalam will be standard usage.

New words are needed for new things and experiences. Painting an old piece of furniture has been going on for decades. There was even a time in the 60s where there were tv programs showing you how to box in those pesky Victorian fireplaces and cover those nasty panelled doors with plywood. Up cycling is as old as the hills and it doesn't need a new words.

the word "upcycling" has been in use for about 20 years - its really not that new.

Wikipedia credits Etsy with the surge in use the last few years, from there it's be taken up by the media I guess.

I'm not doubting you becool, but do you have a source for your 20 years.
As I say, Change That was a daily tv program in the late 90s and I don't recall them using it.

"Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or for better environmental value.

The first recorded use of the term upcycling was by Reiner Pilz of Pilz GmbH in an article by Thornton Kay of Salvo in 1994.[1]

We talked about the impending EU Demolition Waste Streams directive. "Recycling," he said, "I call it downcycling. They smash bricks, they smash everything. What we need is upcycling- where old products are given more value, not less." He despairs of the German situation and recalls the supply of a large quantity of reclaimed woodblock from an English supplier for a contract in Nuremberg while just down the road a load of similar blocks was scrapped. In the road outside his premises, was the result of the Germans' demolition waste recycling. It was a pinky looking aggregate with pieces of handmade brick, old tiles and discernible parts of useful old items mixed with crushed concrete. Is this the future for Europe?"

So exactly 20 years according to the above.

Fair enough.
I wonder when and how it started being used more recently. I imagine it came about more by 'convergent evolution' than someone reading a 20 year old document.

famalam

Oh god.

"Neither use nor ornament"

I've always loved that phrase.

I think ETSY sellers moved on from "shabby chic" to "upcycled", then the media started rinsing it and viola! here we are today.

being the utter twat I am, I was using the word "up-cycled" about 6 years ago about re-purposing my old clothes into clothes for DD1. And I'm far from being at the forefront of trends, so it must have been around and in use well before then.

being the utter twat I am, I was using the word "up-cycled" about 6 years ago about re-purposing my old clothes into clothes for DD1

fell off my chair laughing at "re-purposing"!

that was totally amazeballs!!

And 're-imagined'.

I'd never heard the word famalam before this thread. What a horrible phrase.

Having said that, I only heard of Etsy the weekend before last

Wow, my poverty and grasp of the English language really amuses you lemon!

Now did you really fall off your chair or are you just saying that ......

I'm another one that can't stand either "upcycling" or "vintage" when what you mean is "reusing" and "acquiring secondhand".

See also: curate. (Unless you work in a museum, natch.)

I have CURATED a lovely collection of VINTAGE and UPCYCLED items. (My flat is full of stuff I bought from the charity shop, or stuff people gave me. Which is true, tbh.)

Archery I've never heard of 'curate'. Bloody hell, that's a real shocker!!

Someone on Homes Under the Hammer last we said 'the learning we have taken from this....... Homes under the sodding Hammer, is nothing sacred?

Not sure how related this is but I also really hate it when people say 'yourself' or 'myself' instead of 'you' and 'me'.

In a job I did at a call centre years ago, I was actually told to say 'yourself' rather than 'you'. Example, 'I'll give you a call back later' should be 'I'll give yourself a call back later'. I told the manager that there was no way I was saying that as it was grammatically incorrect and just sounded fucking stupid. He put it in my annual report as me, basically, not being very good at my job. Errrrm, okay.

HeartsTrumpDiamonds

"Neither use nor ornament"

I've always loved that phrase.

My mum used to tell me all the time when I was being particularly annoying as a teenager that I was neither use nor ornament.

Luckily I know she didn't mean it. At least I hope she didn't.

I have a really ugly cupboard that I am going to up cycle. I bought it uber cheap from a charity shop because in terms of storage it's exactly what I want. I've also go some cheap pine shelving units I'm doing the same too. Mind you it's not a new thing for me. As a child I often drew all over decorated my wardrobe as I didn't like it, and had cheap shelves painted to match my room.

Reach/reached/reaching out.

You mean you telephoned someone.

Ineed - we always use neither nowt, nor summat.

Reach/reached/reaching out.
You mean you telephoned someone.

Oh I hear these terms a lot from doing business with Americans, and it is catching on here too - it means more then telephoning someone though.

IME it means asking someone for something - and it doesn't have to be by phone. Generally when you "reach out" you are asking someone for something and waiting on them for a reply before you can proceed further/make a decision. At least that is how people I deal with use it.

Yes. I know. But it's misused often.

You sound like a know it all twat is really joking x