Taking a product and adapting it for a different use. A cousin of reuse and recycling, repurposing is a design principle similar to the one described by William McDonough and Michael Braungart in their 2002 book , in which materials are reborn again and again, often in new forms.
, the most prominent example, repurposes plastic bottles to make fleece for new jackets, a practice that started in 1993. Over the past decade, dozens of other companies have followed. 听makes wallets and bags out of old bike tubes. 听makes blades out of diaper-manufacturing scraps. uses old yoga mats to make flip-flops. makes SUPs from discarded coconut husks. Keen鈥檚 听is made from automobile airbags that were never installed. And makes spent tires into sandals. Patagonia even took repurposing a step further with its experimental , a seven-piece line that included sweaters made from cutting-room scraps and jackets fashioned from respun wool fibers.
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