'Upcycling' Event Promotes Repurposing With Hopes To Expand

DENVER (CBS4) - There was an upcycling festival in Denver over the weekend to promote repurposing items that have been thrown in the trash.

One group is reusing everything from shipping pallets to spoons.

"People look at this as waste, I look at it as art," Palletfest organizer Kenny Fischer said.

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but Fischer said he sees a lot more than beauty in things that may have been thrown out.

"This isn't junk. We are actually creating items that are fun, functional, they're beautiful; and some of which can be very, very high value," he said.

Denver welcomed its first upcycling festival over the weekend. Despite the rain on Sunday that dampened attendance, vendors showed off ways to reuse and repurpose waste.

"We just have to have a little creativity and anything is possible," Fischer said.

Students used forks and spoons to create a helmet. Others, like designer Andrew Darr, used shipping pallets to build a sofa table.

"It's just as good quality as a standard piece of furniture," Darr said. "It's all in the manufacturing of it."

"I think the more people who start thinking of what they can do with items like this, we will absolutely divert a lot of waste from the landfills," Fischer said.

Fischer said that while some pieces are beautiful and all are eco-friendly, the most impressive items are those that are repurposed and truly serve a purpose.

"I had once seen people had made pallet houses, and the purpose of that was to replace tents in refugee camps," Fischer said. "So we're actually solving problems by thinking a little bit outside the box with things that we would typically throw away."

The founder of the event said they're considering expanding to other cities around the country.

LINK: Palletfest