Resurrecting Trash

We don't often look at a broken grocery cart and imagine its second life as a living-room chair. And yet, Reestore did just that. Based just outside of London, the design firm takes everyday waste objects and turns them into functional pieces of furniture.

The idea of redirecting trash bin-bound waste to a more artful end is not new. Nonprofits in many of America's cities have long dedicated their time and energy to collecting and redistributing reusable materials for creative projects and art education.

And it's a good thing too, because every year, Americans generate more than 250 million tons of trash, most of which ends up in landfills. The most skilled craftsmen among us, however, will find a way to make good use of our reckless consumption. If you aspire to do so, there are resources that can help. In their book Readymade, Shoshana Berger and Grace Hawthorne provide readers with a humorous and practical guide to reusing household objects, enabling anyone to master the art of creative reuse.

And may the pessimists among us be buried in their own waste.

--Melissa Weiss