To borrow the phrase from Marshall McLuhan.
And with that as our theme, a variety of links to artists who exploit this (however inadvertently) in their art.
Mohammad Ali out of Punching Bags: http://www.realizeali.com/, note their site is flash handicapped, so to view better images of their project go to wired.com.
Matt Cusick using old maps: http://www.mattcusick.com/pages.php?content=gallery.php&navGallID=100
Jinks Kunst made a portrait of Serge Gainsbourg out of old cigarette butts: http://www.jinkskunst.com/land-art-et-recycling/ & http://webecoist.com/2011/03/27/butting-in-portrait-made-of-over-20k-used-cigarette-butts/
Wander Martich - Makes a penny out of pennies (I like the inherent recursion here..): http://www.flickr.com/photos/bitsorf/5016306135/ & http://www.odditycentral.com/tag/pennies
Andrew Myers creates portraits out of screws: http://www.andrewmyersart.com/#/home
Marcus Levine creates portraits and figures out of nails: http://www.levine-art.co.uk/public/gallery_nails/
And there are a variety of artists are making things out of junk & garbage - Vik Muniz: http://www.vikmuniz.net/, Tom Deininger: http://www.tomdeiningerart.com/selfportait1.html & (previously Linked) Zac Freeman: http://www.zacfreemanart.com/ & Jason Mecier creates portraits of celebrities out of their own garbage (or close enough): http://www.jasonmecier.com/junk06/jdrawer.html & http://www.jasonmecier.com/junk06/jkitchen.html