TOLEDO, Ohio — Monday is National Upcycling Day.
The idea is to take something that would otherwise end up in the dump and reuse it differently.
A few local supporters of upcycling here in Toledo said it's beneficial in numerous ways and helps as we face rising inflation.
Michelle Atkinson, the business owner of Vod's Here, upcycles old, worn-down clothes, turning them into new unique pieces.
"It is basically taking something and trying to find another purpose for it, trying to improve on it, trying to customize it," Atkinson said.
Through a technique called visible mending, she has turned a hole in a pair of shorts into a colorful sewn-on pattern that patches up the hole.
She said it's a way of patching a hole but making it visible which is why it's called visible mending.
"Finding things in your closet that maybe need a new life and you can avoid buying new clothes if you need to," Atkinson said.
And now she teaches others at local public libraries how to do just that for things they might otherwise toss out.
"It's a problem in our society where we tell ourselves we are not creative and that we can't make things," Atkinson said. "We're very reliant on big business and corporations to provide us with things and I think it feels good to make something yourself."
Clothes aren't the only things people say can be upcycled.
Toledo Grows executive director Yvonne Dubielak said it's a great budget-friendly tactic for gardeners.
"We repurpose cardboard to lay under mulch, we repurpose plastic to kill weeds before we can replant or repurpose limbs," Dubielak said. "Whatever we can use to be able to keep it out of the landfill here."
She said laying the cardboard under the mulch will help fertilize as the cardboard will eventually deteriorate.
"We work with a lot of low-income folks so you can repurpose different items to use in your garden," Dubielak said. "You don't have to spend a lot of money in your garden to make it a beautiful place."