Detroit Upcycle · Est. 2025
Waste
Less.
Create
More.
Detroit Upcycle turns discarded materials into opportunity — for makers, students, and neighborhoods across the city.
What is upcycling?
More than recycling.
It’s transformation.
You’ve heard of recycling — taking an old bottle and turning it into raw material to make another bottle. Upcycling is different. Upcycling takes something discarded and turns it into something better, more valuable, or more useful than it was before. No industrial processing required. Just creativity and intention.
Think of a car seat leather remnant becoming a handmade wallet. A pile of wood scraps becoming a community garden bed. A worn textile becoming a quilt that sells at Eastern Market. Detroit has been doing this, informally, for generations.
Detroit Upcycle exists to formalize, fund, and celebrate that tradition.
Breaks down old material to make something new. Requires energy, processing, industry.
Transforms material directly into something of higher value. Community-powered. Zero processing.
Ends the material’s story permanently — and releases greenhouse gases for decades.
more jobs created per ton vs. landfilling
Our promise to Detroit
What Detroit Upcycle does
Detroit already has the raw materials — literally. Automotive remnants, construction scraps, textile waste. What it needs is infrastructure to connect those materials to the people who can transform them. That’s us.
A free drop-off and pick-up hub in the LaSalle Gardens / Woodbridge corridor. Businesses donate surplus materials. Makers take what they need. Nothing goes to the curb.
After-school and weekend workshops for ages 10–18. Students design and build functional objects from reclaimed materials — and leave with a project they made and kept.
Small seed grants ($500–$2,500) for Detroit residents with a product idea built around upcycled materials. We fund the first production run and connect makers to Eastern Market vendors.
Partner with mid-size manufacturers and contractors to divert their surplus before it’s landfilled. We handle pickup logistics and provide a tax-deductible donation letter for every load.
Monthly upcycle markets rotating through Detroit neighborhoods. Local makers sell their work. New participants learn the craft. Neighbors meet each other.
Curriculum-aligned classroom kits shipped free to Detroit Public Schools classrooms. Each kit ties reuse to science, engineering, and design — no budget required from teachers.
Why Detroit
This city has always known how to make more from what others overlook.
Detroit makers, Eastern Market, 2024
of waste kept out of landfills by just one Detroit upcycle business, Pingree Detroit, since 2015 — proof the model works at local scale.
of creative materials diverted annually by Arts & Scraps, the Detroit nonprofit that has run a reuse store since 1989.
created per 1,000 tons of material in the reuse sector — compared to 1 job in the landfill sector for the same volume.
Divert 10 tons of material, run 48 workshops, and issue 20 maker micro-grants to Detroit residents building upcycle-based businesses.
Community voices
What Detroiters are saying
I’ve been making furniture from salvaged wood for years, but I was always scrounging. Detroit Upcycle gave me a reliable material source and connected me to my first wholesale buyer. My shop went full-time in six months.
My seventh graders used to glaze over during science. When we started the Build Lab curriculum — making real objects from materials they brought in themselves — something clicked. Three of them want to be engineers now.
We generate so much offcut material from our renovations. Before, it went straight to the dumpster. Detroit Upcycle picks it up the same week. It costs us nothing and we know it goes somewhere that matters.
Foundation & organizational partners
Detroit Community Foundation
Great Lakes Climate Fund
New Economy Initiative
TechTown Detroit
Wayne State University
Ready to build something?
Whether you’re a maker, a teacher, a business with surplus material, or someone who wants to be part of something good — there’s a place for you in Detroit Upcycle.
Questions? Reach us directly at
about@detroitupcycle.com
Tell us a bit about yourself and we’ll follow up within 48 hours.
You’re in.
Thanks for connecting with us. We’ll be in touch within 48 hours at the email you provided. In the meantime, reach us directly at about@detroitupcycle.com.