Upcycling

Recycling a material normally means reducing it to its raw material and then making a new item from it. For example glass bottles are melted down and then used to make new glass bottles. This process uses a lot of energy. The value of the recycled material is “neutral”, after it is used it is thrown away, melted down and another bottle is made, which has the same value/quality of the bottle that was discarded.

Upcycling is similar to recycling, but literally, better.

An old item or “waste” material is reused, normally with minimal processing, this reduces the amount of energy wasted in melting it down to its raw material. More importantly, the value of the material has increased – a waste material with little or no value has become something far more useful or attractive and is now worth more or is better quality.