Pure Gold: Upcycled! Upgraded!

$39.95 at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

The processes of global industrialization and mounting consumerism produce so much refuse on a daily basis that recycling and upcycling have become hot topics of vital global importance. Waste, a seemingly inexhaustible resource, has become a new kind of raw material for production. Designers are beginning to take a different view of the “useless” things that people discard: bulky waste, rubbish, cheap materials—in the right hands, these become pure gold. Pure Gold: Upcycled! Upgraded! explores the subject…