February 17, 2010
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