environment conscious chennaiites are big on upcycling most of us just throw away household junk or cajole the wastepaper wala into buying it off us for a pittance but has it ever occurred to you that the stuff you just junked could have perhaps had some other use well those who think every piece of scrap can be used again call it upcycling which is basically converting used products to other utility items that stack of old newspapers could be made into interesting accessories plastic bottles can become pen holders get the drift welcome to the world of upcyclingteam building via upcycling call it a part of team building efforts or an activity to encourage employees to upcycle trash the hyundai office in sriperumbudur has been religiously forgive the pun upcycling trash and making those godly installations during navarathri for the last 15 years rm senthil kumar deputy general manager health and safety of the company says every year each department comes up with a theme and they work around those themes to make installations siva parvatham indias mars orbiter mission are all themes our employees have recently worked on apart from regular idols that we put up during puja the whole process of making these installations by upcycling trash is taken so seriously that employees group up in shifts to complete them while our employees work in different shifts they take turns to work on these installations so they complete it without it affecting their regular office work while they get the chance explore their creative side we see this as a good activity to hone their teamwork skills says senthil and adds these artworks are made of discarded packaging materials such as wooden frames polythene sheets and steel frames other scrap items like old motor led lights controllers etc are also used the best installations are awarded during navarathri celebrations at officeupcycled fashion accessories uma dotc a city youngster loves everything upcycled from neckpieces and rings to small pouches and bags interestingly she herself makes all these products at home i was part of this sustainability museum called suseum which had to be shut down due to financial difficulties but my interest in upcycling continued i myself make all these products using waste materials like old newspaper and plastic bottles from my own house whatever products i make i put it on my website with a small description on how to make them my idea is to encourage others to take up upcycling i dont sell these products as i dont like to commercialise this initiative of minetheyre unique according to sruti harihara subramanian of goli soda an upcycledproducts store there is an increasing demand for such products because of the quality of upcycled items that are as good as new of course environment awareness programmes have been one of the reasons why many people have turned to upcycling of late on the other hand the quality of upcycled products lure several customers too one