Upcycling was first discussed by Reiner Pilz in 1994, and is considered a much more effective conservation effort than recycling (or “downcycling”), where materials are destroyed to make lesser-quality products. In upcycling, your discarded waste is improved upon and moved higher up the trash chain—and while it’s a new concept to most consumers, artists have been doing it forever, in everything from Amish quilts to the Watts Towers. Muzeo, Anaheim’s museum of all things culturally conscientious, invites you to gander at some more exceptional junk-turned-to-jewels transformations and possibly rethink your own trash, especially plastic, which the world produces hundreds of millions of tons of each year. It’s time to rethink basically everything, it seems, and there’s no better time for art to lend a hand.
Tuesdays-Sundays, 10 a.m. Starts: June 12. Continues through Aug. 31, 2014
