Don't throw it! Instead Yiuco it...

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Yiuco is a web-based service – the first of its kind – that lets people sell things so long as they are recycled, reused, upcycled or re-manufactured. People are also able to share their ideas for reuse and recycled objects.

Yiuco offers a space for creators, inventors and entrepreneurs to run their own online shops. It's like eBay meets Etsy but everything listed has to have had a previous life. Yiuco, the Greek word for piled up clothes, aims “to create, design and think of new longer life-lasting products that will be more easily recycled and be used again instead of ending up as waste.”

The name is a bit amorphous as the service doesn't just handle clothes. Yiuco has a wide range of categories from baby to movies and music to electronics. Items listed on the site include tin can creations, jenga block keychains and bowls made from old vinyl.

Since the service is so new and still being populating by new buyers and sellers, there are no transaction or listing fees until spring of 2011.

It looks like an interesting service and might just catch on. In fact, I seriously hope so and I hope it will become the Etsy for recycled and upcycled goods.

This idea does not come before time and I sincerely wish it all the success in the world.

© 2011