February 17, 2010 
Over the last decade the term “Upcycling” has been coined and worked into the discourse of sustainability efforts. It appeared in William McDonough’s book, Cradle to Cradle. It has yet to earn itself mainstream popularity, but its necessity as a goal for how we should be progressing makes its definition important. Like so many things in sustainability, I come across many enthusiasts who are trying to promote the practice but may be passing around an incorrect meaning.
We all know what the basis of Recycling is: a practice that takes an item and targets it for reuse, returning it back to the cycle of daily contribution to society rather than discarding it to trash. Going to the dictionary for confirmation renders the following:
- to treat or process (used or waste materials) so as to make suitable for reuse: recycling paper to save trees
- to alter or adapt for new use without changing the essential form or nature of: The old factory is being recycled as a theater
- to use again in the original form or with minimal alteration: The governor recycled some speeches from his early days
- to cause to pass through a cycle again: to recycle laundry through a washing machine
Upcycling is described by some as reusing a material without degrading the quality and composition of the material for its next use. When plastic bottles are recycled, for instance, most often they cannot be turned back into containers associated with anything that can be ingested due to the risk of things seeping into the plastic. As a result, these usually become carpets, or toys, or winter fleeces: things that will eventually also become trash. Recycling has simply prolonged the inevitable by stretching out our waste stream and made the lifecycle costs of the material a bit less.
In this model, upcycling becomes dually important. First, the practice reduces the amount of waste that we produce and ultimately goes into the ground for longer than any of us will be around. Secondly, it also reduces the need for new virgin material to be harvested as feedstock for new generations of product. In the case of plastic, this means less oil wells drilled. For metals, less mountains mined. For paper, less trees felled. All around this means less expended energy.
Our treatment of soda cans is closer to a true upcycling model. These aluminum containers can be melted down and made into brand new cans and in the process save over 90% of the energy required to make new ones from scratch. This cycle can continue in perpetuity, reducing energy consumption and effectively removing certain materials from the waste stream. Newsprint finds similar success.
More than once I have seen people broadcasting their “upcycling” habits like making wallets from tires, or lawn chairs from pallets, or tables from wire spools. These are examples of recycling. None of those materials are going back UP the supply chain (the series of processes that an industry uses to create a product or service.) They are just making the chain a bit longer.
Upcycling represents a truly cyclical, balanced process that all industries and companies should be aiming towards. At this point, just having the aim would be another important step. All of our products could be drastically changed if the beginning of their design started with the goal of not having them end up in a landfill. A number of ways could be utilities to train our economy into an inherent practice of reuse. My personal definition of the term ends up as:
Upcycling: A process that can be repeated in perpetuity of returning materials back to a pliable, usable form without degradation to their latent value—moving resources back up the supply chain.
It is important to note that I am not saying that recycling is a waste of time or beyond acclaim. Rather, recycling is a first step in reaching a more comprehensive and sustainable solution of waste management that can eventually limit the amount of new, virgin materials that need to be produced or mined from the earth.
Photo Credit: RecyclingPoint.com.au
That’s pretty cool. So how do we get stuff to be “upcycled”? There are recycling plants and everything, but where do you send stuff to get upcycled? Are there places that even do that?
It reminds me of “The City of Ember”, how since they have finite supplies, they have to keep reusing and reusing everything. Except of course, we aren’t underground.
Anyway– glad I stumbled across this blog. I’m trying to find more ways to be “eco-friendly”, so I thought this was very interesting.
Interesting – I haven’t heard of ‘upcycling’ before. I suppose it’s equivalent in material terms to the ‘reuse’ step in the classic waste hierarchy (reduce, reuse, recycle), though rather than being direct reuse of the same product, it’s reuse of the materials in an equally useful way.
As you pointed out, the most important starting point is the design phase; unfortunately, existing products have already been designed and their production processes are often deeply entrenched and reinforced by their scale.
Recycling is undoubtedly useful, and is a visible and conscious means for extending the useful lifetime of materials, but I wonder whether it gives a false sense of accomplishment. A full recycling bin is still a full bin…
I have been so confused on the difference between upcycling and recycling. Thank you so much!
hello, i am a GCSE Student for ICT. can i please use your information?
hi there, i am a GCSE Student for ICT. Could I please use your information?
You can certainly use the article and its information in your own work. All I would ask is that you reference where you got the information with either my name and/or Intercon. In the end, the reason I write about sustainability is to help spread awareness about the problems and opportunities that exist around us, so I’m glad to hear that your school work is helping do more of the same.
Let me know if I can be of any other help to you.
As vishaal said, this years GCSE task is about Upcycling. Would it be okay for me to also use your information?
All sources should be referenced anyway, as the GCSE requires you to state where you found your sources.
I bet you’ll get loads of students asking this, as information on Upcycling is hard to find.
Plummer,
Thanks for your interest. Similarly, I am all for distributing information. The best way for there to be more info on Upcycling is if we keep talking about it with more people, so by all means. Like you said, all sources should be referenced anyway. Good luck on your research as well. All the best.
hello, i am a GCSE Student for ICT. Could I please use your information?
hello, i am a GCSE student for ICT. could i use your information for my controlled assessment?
See responses above. Best of luck to you both.
Hello, I am a GCSE Student for ICT. Could I please use your information? Thank you.
Hello, this years controlled assesment is on Upclying, and I have stumbled upon this article, and much to my suprise, I have found that there are lots of other students wanting to use the information in their controlled assesment too. The board requires that we get permition to use it however, so would it be ok if I was to use it in my assesment?
Thanks
Jack, thanks for stopping by.
To all students of the GCSE, you are welcome to use the information in this article as long as credit is given. Good luck on your endeavors and let me know if there is any other way I can help.
this is good
x
Hi
As part of my controlled assessment I have to research upcycling
I would like your permission to use your idea and of course I will credit your website.
Please inform me on whether I will be able to do this
Thanks
x
Ria
Ive been saving some things I know would be great for upcycling but dont know where to send them or take them. I live in Hampshire Co. W.V. Can you send info, or tell me where to look?
Interesting article, do you have any further reading on this? I always understood upcycling to be a process of taking something unwanted and of low-value and converting it into something of a higher value hence the ‘up’ part. What you’re referring to is a more cyclical process which I imagine most would consider ‘recycling’ especially in the case of aluminium soda cans which then become more soda cans.
Wikipedia defines upcycling as ‘converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value.’ I think your definition takes into account ‘environmental value’ but not so much the ‘better quality’ part. What do you think?
Greetings. Thanks for stopping by!
I think that upcycling is a newer, superior process with higher expectations than recycling, which has been around for a while now. Goals of upcycling raise the bar for how we handle our waste and shed light on the fact that we have the ability to eliminate waste streams entirely.
When it comes to your definition, my stumbling block would be how is that different from recycling? Theoretically, turning a plastic bottle into a carpet is raising its intrinsic value. In fact just about all of our recycling measures could fit into that definition.
The problem is that plenty of what we recycle now is not really helping, only delaying the inevitable of ending up as waste. Upcycling, by contrast breaks that trend. I think your wikipedia definition is not inaccurate, but in my mind (and I would argue, in terms of sustainability) being able to turn old tires into raw rubber creates more value and quality than turning them into wallets. Turning a plastic bottle into a pencil holder is giving use to a piece of trash. Turning it back into raw plastic is creating the opportunity for it to be turned into anything.
Hi!
I followed this intersting discussion. But I wondered why the term downcycling never has been used so far.
For my understanding our definition of upcycling is referring to downcycling, where a separation into the different components brings the material in new production process. For upcycling no major separation/modification is needed.
Interesting how the perceptions are so different, isn’t it?
Cheers
When the term “upcycling” was coined – c1994- there was no term “recycling”.It was either upcycling or down cycling.(Recycling Is a word I consider to be sort of “greenwashing”).I think the term recycling came into popular use to make people feel better about their consumption,it smacks of Madison Ave to me.Call me old school I am sticking with the original.
http://www.delightworthyn.com/2011/06/the-hat-that-was-a-shirt/
Stepping off the soapbox now
Reblogged this on Vintage Style Queen and commented:
Yesterday I up-cycled one accessory into another and it got me thinking about the difference between recycling and up-cycling was and that’s when I found this post.
I lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for 2 years and loved it. Hurricane Katrina came and ruined it all for me.
I was taught by my mother the importance of recycling when I was 5 years old, but I\’ve been upcycling for 10 years – full-time for 5. I’ve sold to one British TV personality and have already been featured on some blogs, but I’d love to be featured on yours since you deal with the meat of my business which is upcycling.
If you’re interested for more info, you can visit my site at suzannamcmahan.com and my
Sincerely,
Suzanna McMahan
This is a great article, very informative. In our clothing business we re-use furniture leather and make new leather belts and other such accessories, take a look ! http://www.oneleafcreations.com/leather-hip-belts/
wow, amazing post. I didnt know recycling as defined really isnt recycling… (i hope you don’t mind I posted a link to this article in the Conscious Index
Great article! I’ve been looking at a similar issue on my blog and exploring why upcycling is so popular. Check it out: http://handmedowncardiff.wordpress.com/2012/12/06/the-only-way-is-upcycling/
Thank you, T. Caine, for such a wonderful representation of upcycling. The web is very limited on its definitions and/or examples. I am a PSU student. Could I use your information in my presentation?
Absolutely. As long as credit is provided then same as the above examples.
Thank you! Much appreciated.
Hello
love your article. I am currently researching recycling and upcycling for my final assignment in my current studies, national diploma of fashion&textiles and would love to use your article as a source! Would i reference use as T. Caine as the author? 
just to clarify, is recycling turning waste into something new and upcycling is turning an already used product, i.e an old skirt, and reworking into it so it’s wanted again? Instead of using/buying new materials. Thank you, x
Hey Hannah, thanks for stopping by.
Unfortunately, I think that we don’t currently have a way to “upcycle” clothing. Upcycling is about taking the material components back to their virgin levels of pliability. In the case of clothing, it would be the equivalent of turning a shirt back into thread, or better yet, cotton (that could be made into an entirely new shirt).
Conversely, cutting a shirt up and using the fabric to be made into something else, like a handbag, or a patch, or a reusable shopping bag, is recycling the material. You’re prolonging the use of the same material rather than returning it to its pliable state.
A good rule of thumb for whether or not a process is upcycling is can you do it indefinitely, over and over again? We can upcycle the same aluminum cans back into raw aluminum pretty much forever, but you can only cut up a skirt a limited number of times before you run out of skirt. Make sense?
Using that as a reference is perfectly fine. Good luck in your studies!
I just saw the term “upcycling” used and was curious to see how it was different from recycling so I googled it. I’ve taken an interest in this area with regard to old/used furniture pieces, wood, etc. Would taking say an old desk, sanding it down, staining it, and basically making it better or different than it’s original appearance be considered upcycling?
Erika, thanks for stopping by and your comment. I think what you are describing is not necessarily either recycling or upcycling–perhaps just refinishing. The desk is nominally the same, serving exactly the same function and isn’t altered in any considerable way (really just similar to a coat of paint). To put it another way, if we took an old car and sand-blasted the paint off to put on brand new coat, we wouldn’t say that we are recycling or upcycling the car of its components.
Recycling the desk would be dismantling it and turning the pieces into… serving trays, or children’s toys, or cutting it up into a pair of end tables. It would be giving the same material in its current form another “cycle” of use. However, in the end this is still ultimately something akin to trash, so we have no increased its environmental value. In essence, we can’t really “upcycle” wood because it’s a natural product. An exception could be something like fiberboard or particle board (made of woodchips) which can be chipped down and then made back in to the raw material for a new production process. In this case, the material is going back up the supply chain in the opposite direction of trash, expanding the options for its final use.
I’ve been upcycling old items into jewelry for the past 5 years and I sell my things online. It’s been a great job for me so far!
Great article! I actually just did one myself on upcycling and am adding this as a read more resource. Thanks!
Nicole, great to hear from you and thanks for stopping by. In looking at your article, I think you actually have the definitions of upcycling and recycling switched. Upcycling refers to an increase in environmental value, where as recycling is extending the lifespan of an existing material.
A good example is plastic bottles. When we recycle plastic bottles, we usually don’t turn them into plastic bottles. We turn them into fleeces, or countertops, or something else that will eventually be trash. Aluminum cans, on the other hand, are something that we actually UPcycle. We turn them back into new aluminum cans.
A good rule of thumb for whether or not a process is upcycling is can you do it indefinitely, over and over again? We can upcycle the same aluminum cans back into raw aluminum pretty much forever, but you can only cut up an old sweater a limited number of times before you run out of sweater.
Thanks so much for the clarification! I didn’t realize i was so misinformed on what exactly upcycling is. Very interesting to see that so many other blogs as well as websites are using the term when in fact it should be recycled (turning a bulb or bottle into a vase). Again thanks for taking the time to read my post and offer your expertise. I have went back and changed up my post so that it is accurate and informational.