In one of my daughter’s more inspired moments, she decided to create an upcycled project.

Truly the trend of upcycling began with children when they turned that plain old cardboard box into a spaceship, castle, and/or barn.

What excited me about my daughter’s project was her description “Inspired by Terracycle“.

My daughter’s familiarity with Terracyle comes from items we have been sent to review for our blogs.

TerraCycle makes affordable, eco-friendly products from a wide range of different non-recyclable waste materials. With over 50 products available at major retailers like Walmart, Target, The Home Depot, OfficeMax, Petco and Whole Foods Market, TerraCycle is one of the fastest growing eco-friendly manufacturers in the world. Our hope is to eliminate the idea of waste by finding innovative, unique uses for materials others deem garbage.

She recently saw an episode of Garbage Moguls, in which the Terracycle team tried to make pet products from pet food bags.  Most of the items were pretty crappy, so I think she became inspired by the fact that she thought she could do better than the employees at Terracycle.

We occasionally buy San Pellegrino All Natural Sparkling Lemon Beverage.  Each can is individually wrapped with a foil top. I am not sure of the purpose of this top, but it does protect the can lid from contamination (remember the rat urine emails?).  These discarded tops became the inspiration for my daughter to make a can cooler/holder.  It’s funny she would think of such an idea, as we don’t even own one.

For about an hour, she labored away and added a discarded chocolate wrapper to her materials. She considered aesthetics and added a little aluminum foil to the mix, but she was concerned about keeping her materials limited to trash.  The end result could not just be tossed away, and now we are proud owners of an upcycled can holder.

I’m wondering if there’s a job for her at Terracycle?