Up-Cycling Your Business, Pt 2: Why Do it?

As I said before, I really enjoy talking on the up-cycling subject a lot. Sometimes, in my daydream head, I start thinking about how many "things" or pieces of "things" are just floating around the world, just filling it up. Of course, matter can neither be created or destroyed, but a an inflated balloon takes up more space than a deflated one, right? If that doesn't make sense just think about it for while.

But what reason do people have to actually participate in up-cycling? It's not surprising to hear that consumer reports show that up-cycled items are being viewed as lower quality by consumers. But how many items really need to be indestructible? Lets replace things once in a while. If we do this we can make products that degrade and sustain our earth, rather than sustaining the product and degrading our earth. So... that my rant on that. 

The true point about up-cycling as a business idea is that most people can have some sort of resource that can be converted into a cash flow and they don't know it. Simply taking out the raw materials costs from your budget greatly increases your profitability. For example, our friends at Butler Built realized that one of their father's warehouses produced an excess of pallets of all shapes and sizes that were otherwise being unused. So maybe you have someone who religiously puts bottle caps in a jar to "recycle" but they never do.
Bottle Cap Tables are in style right now, and they go for a good price:

Or maybe you have some left over wine bottles:

Up-cycling holds a wealth of possibilities to create a small business for yourself, and as you can see, it's profitable.