I think these are cute IF they were already cute in their disposable state. Disposable honey bears and non-disposable honey bears or berry baskets are both cute. Disposable and non-disposable cleaning product bottles or crumpled cups are both not.

Very cool idea, I think they would be good with some nice chalk paint as well or make them rustic looking with some dark stain.

These look rather tacky to me.

I actually DON'T like this trend. Ceramic party plates? Why not just use your regular dinner plates? I'm also not convinced that this is more eco-friendly. Ceramic is a much tougher material to upcycle/reuse than paper and plastic.

Ok, had a better look and I have to admit. A couple are pretty cute. I kinda like the greek coffee cup. I'd def use that for my morning caffeine fix at work. The cupcake wrappers are adorable as well. I'd use that as a candle holder in my kitchen. But the can of soda and laundry detergent bottles? Ehh.. not so much.

Ha ha. I like this trend. The laundry detergent bottle is certainly not going to become a classic, but it's cheeky and speaks to a generation of recyclers and up-cyclers. Why not?

Love the cookie tray, berry baskets, and zipper bag. Would look super cute if you were putting on a party.

I have both the Anthropologie Farmers Market Basket and the I Am Not A Paper Cup mug. Love the Anthro basket! I currently use it to hold the grape & cherry tomatoes I've harvest from my garden. I no longer use my I am Not A Paper Cup mug because it really doesn't retain heat well.

That being said, I am turned off by the majority of the above options (like the paper bag, cookie holder, and the envelope). There is definitely a fine line between cute and dumb.

What @Anna Lisa said, 100%. There are some cute ideas here but as I'm too old to do 'cute' I'll pass. My children would probably love some of them though.

I think a few people are missing the point, some of these things look like disposable items but are ceramic so you don't dispose of them but reuse.

I have the ziplock candy jar on my desk at work, everyone comments on how cool it is the first time they come in my office

I'm also with Anna Lisa... some of them are cute. I particualry like the berry baskets and the cookie tray, Even the egg carton ones (Clever serving for a variety of things... or cute dresser top storage for baubles....)

I think you're never too old for cute. If you like it... go for it.

Although I don't like the look of some of these items period, reuseable or disposable. (I'm a huge fan of REAL cups and classes for instance. Its cheaper to get some tumblers and what not at Ikea or thrift store. )

@C.Richelle Designs

Ha ha, I'm afraid I was born middle aged, so I've always been too old for cute. But I agree, if you like these, have at 'em, it's not my business!

On the upside, it's a very interesting way to appreciate the fact that every single package we use has been intentionally designed to be aesthetically pleasing, functional and culturally relevant. Often people don't realize how many hundreds or thousands of hours of work has gone into making something as seemingly mundane or haphazard as a SOLO cup or a can of soda, and that each and every ridge and curve of such products exists for a particular reason.

On the downside, it seems like a strange ode to consumerism -- a celebration of society's inherent wastefulness by purchasing yet another trendy product that when we tire of it will probably end up in a landfill like the actual disposable products to which these semi-permanent goods are intended to pay homage.

My favorite is the chinese takeout vase -- maybe because it is only subtly derivative and not meant to be an exact copy. The detergent vases are my least favorite. Yuck! Seems like you could just make one of these yourself out of a real bottle -- which would be actual upcycling.

Some of these really do add wit and irony to everyday life but others are brilliant packing design that deserve to be made this way.

@Miller8786: I LOVE the cookie holder. I may be biased since i'm a product designer but it is is an example of great Industrial Design. I think its a great way to serve cookies at a party. It celebrates product design for those of us who know how much work and research goes into the mundane.

Although I appreciate the look of reusable egg crates, they're much better as serving pieces than as a storage solution - Alton Brown has said on his show that raw eggs should be kept covered, in the containers they came in.

I couldn’t say it better than @anna lisa did. If they started out cute, great. Otherwise, you have non-disposable trash.

@carolinazhangdesign - haha! you know how the non-glass ones can be so loud and crinkly when you are trying to finagle them out of the cookie bag? and sometimes when it is only half full of cookies it doesn't do such a great job of actually holding them in place. it's always full of half broken cookies and crumbs. i think my distaste for the original product is just transferring over. :)

@Amymakescakes, I love Alton Brown!

I don't understand some of these. The coffee cups make sense--you bring them to Starbucks instead of using the disposable cups.It's eco-friendly.I thought that was the point.But what are you going to do with ceramic berry baskets? Take them to the farmers market and have the berries transferred from the disposable basket they were already in? Then the disposable basket gets thrown out.I don't get it.

The cupcake liner candle holder is cute,but it would make me want a cupcake every time I looked at it. The cleaner-bottle vases---I really don't get that one.Ugly.

I'm on the zipper bag train. And I would use the party plates as my dinnerware on a daily basis. The rest I'm not so keen on.

That zipper bag makes me want to put a goldfish in it.

Now that I think about it,these items are in different categories.The coffee cups are meant to be eco-friendly,replacing the disposable ones.Some of the other things are just meant to be whimsical,fun stuff for the home. It was putting them all together in one post that didn't really make sense.

Oh, I was confused. I thought this was about items being recycled INTO permanent items. These are brand new, made to LOOK like plastic bottles & such. I have a friend who dips honey bears & other shaped containers into plaster paris & then paints them. I do a craft with glass & plastic bottles that I've covered with plaster & fabric. Then I paint them to look old, or unusual. They are now recycled/re purposed, permanent, artistic, yet functional items. Some of these are cute, but are they made from recycled materials? That would be a bonus. (I may have missed that part in the text).

@Scoot: Well said!

Okay, most of those I don't care for at all, but that zipper bag is just too cute. Or maybe it's just the jelly beans in it... regardless, I like it.

These are all just novelty items - i.e., wastes of money. I would like perhaps to see a post about what kinds of packaging is the most/lease recyclable, and how you have to present your recyclables to your municipality, lest they be tossed into the garbage for having too much food/grease/residue to actually go through the recycling process they offer. I am convinced that 2/3 of what I put into recycling actually ends up in a land fill - wine bottles that go in in one piece and get broken in the truck, etc.

A few are clever; most are cheesy; akin to an Oreo shaped cookie jar.

Toby Fraley, who designed the Honey Bear vases, has lots of cool ceramic and non-ceramic work, including robots made from recycled parts. He even created an entire pop-up gallery featuring a "Robot Repair Shop" here in Pittsburgh - http://pghrobotrepair.com/

Wow, are you really going to take those egg cartons to your local farmer? Are you really going to hand those takeout containers to the server in the Chinese restaurant? I know people who have this junk and it sits on the shelf. A huge waste. Glass and stainless steel drink containers and tiffins are all you need.

I think some of them are pretty cute as long as you use them. The other novelty items are just that - new purchases for decoration.

I adore the crinkle-cups. They are so cute! And I must confess I find the ceramic ramen cup a lot of fun. I don't like to eat or drink out of styrofoam, but sometimes the shape of a thing can bring back a lot of nice memories.

They are really witty. Funny to make "disposables" into precious items.