Reuse: promoting repurposing through an online DIY community

With the large volumes of waste going to landfills and the increase in popularity with online do-it-yourself communities, there is an opportunity to support renewal and reuse with the content generated from these communities that has yet to be explored. Although do-it-yourself (DIY) sites offer support for repurposing, projects are often presented top-down, potentially requiring users to acquire additional items to complete a project. The Reuse application leverages content from existing DIY websites but employs a bottom-up search mechanism that allows of users to search based on the items that she wants to repurpose. This application is intended to encourage and motivate people to reuse, renew, and remanufacture what they own to extend the lifecycle and utility of objects.