ABSTRACT
Upcycling reuses materials for their same or a higher purpose when imaging an industrial ecosystem. A healthy balance is needed that addresses environmental sustainability with cultural heritage. A strain in the contemporary consciousness about environmentalism is that people should be driving less, and when driving should be doing so in vehicles that consume less fuel per mile driven. A way of exhibiting economic wealth and social superiority was to be transported by another means, most frequently by horse-drawn carriage or stagecoach, since this required financial capital. Horse-drawn vehicles continued to proliferate as means of transportation due to the growing middle class that benefited from industrialization. For example, by 1900, there were approximately 7,632 carriage manufacturers in the United States, with 4,560 employing 4 people or fewer. The smallness of the vehicle conveys efficient fuel or energy economy, and thus an element of “greenness” by being environmentally friendly.
