The River Festival Chooses to Reuse
One of our main focuses at the River Festival is the environment. A keen focal point to all involved with the River Festival is to upcycle where possible. We will be considering our environmental impact every step of the way from the charcoal we use to the lighting we use. Year one, we will have to compromise a fair deal although it’s our firm commitment to develop L’Oasis to be as environmentally friendly as possible using the minimum of resources (except from hard work) and ultimately becoming self sufficient.
Sometimes referred to as ‘creative recycling’, upcycling is entirely different from recycling.
The Cambridge English Dictionary defines upcycling as:
“The activity of making new furniture, objects, etc. out of old or used things or waste material”
So, upcycling has nothing to do with the industrial process of recycling. Instead, upcycling involves taking an item that would otherwise be waste and improving it in some way to make it useful again.
A commonly upcycled item is old and unfashionable furniture. A cabinet or chest of drawers can be quickly and successfully transformed through a process of sanding, painting and the addition of new handles. Our coffee table was an ugly pine table that after being sanded and painted with chalk paint works brilliantly and has a new lease of life.
As we go through the process of decorating the house, we are upcycling wherever possible and sourcing unwanted items that become our treasure.
Upcycling isn’t just transforming objects into better versions of themselves; often, objects get repurposed to offer a different function entirely. With fire-cooking being such a important element of the River Festival, we need an outdoor kitchen. After weeks of agonising over what that would look like, we decided that a temporary kitchen would be best while we spend more time designing the acre and a half space of the garden. Also, with not having a full 12-month cycle here, we wanted to give ourselves the opportunity to see when and where all the different plants grow before committing an area to a permanent structure.
Last weekend there was a carnival in the village. Everybody followed the gigantic papier mache effigy of Emmanuel Macron through the village over two days with much celebrating, music and dressing up. It all culminated at the bottom of the garden on Sunday afternoon when Macron was set alight as children danced around. Walking the dogs later that evening, we spotted the charred oil drums that had formed Macron’s base. These were perfect so now we have the charred remains of Macron in the workshop ready to clean and paint ready for the outdoor kitchen. We found the aluminium covered old iron framed doors in a junk yard. One man’s waste, another man’s work surface.
So, we have started hunting for precious waste. Not only does it save money, it saves all the resources that would go into creating a new product. It is not just the labour and materials, it is also the energy
Recycling involves the destruction of waste in order to create something new, whereas upcycling takes waste and creates something new from it in its current state.
When upcycling, the original form is retained and the object is recognisable, which gives it a story — you can see what it has been and also what it has become. Every object has a narrative.
In this sense, the upcycled object is a kind of tribute to the object it used to be.
While recycling is practical, upcycling is highly creative and can involve a wide variety of techniques and materials to create the finished product.
In summary, reuse and upcycling reduce the need for recycling and are therefore great options for the environment.
