What is Upcycling?
By Lynette Connors
I’ve been asked this question many times since I started my second Etsy shop, ReIncarKnits. People wonder why I call the products in this line “upcycled” rather than “recycled”. What’s the difference? Am I just making up an unnecessary new word?
I first came across the term “upcycled” on Etsy.com, shortly after starting my first Etsy shop, LuvEweKnits. It’s a fairly new term, but the concept is hardly revolutionary. Our ancestors have been doing this for a long time. So what does it mean?
Upcycling is just one aspect of recycling. The other is downcycling. When you look at things to recycle, these are the two basic directions to go.
If you take an item that is considered unusable in its current form and destined to be thrown away, and use it to make something new, that has added value, it is upcycling. It not only keeps the item out of a landfill, it makes it useful again in some way. It also reduces energy expenditure. Less new raw material has to be produced to make new products.
If you take the same item, but instead reduce it to a new, raw material to make something new, usually with a lesser quality, it is “downcycling”. This still keeps the items out of the landfills and oceans, and creates new useful products, but does usually have a higher energy cost in the processing, and usually decreases the quality of the new product.
Take, for example, a brick building that is no longer usable. If you take it apart carefully, many of the bricks can be reused in walkways, or sliced to make brick facing for things like fireplaces. These things use little to no energy to create the new product, and prevent the same amount of new bricks being produced at a higher energy cost.
If the building is instead demolished, the brick can still be recycled, but it would be downcycled. The demolished bricks could be ground up or crushed and used in an aggregate of some sort, or perhaps even as a dust for coloring things like concrete. It might be combined with other recycled materials and some new, raw material to make something like kitchen countertops. This still keeps the brick out of landfills, and creates a new and useful product. The energy cost is higher than upcycling, but still less than manufacturing new kitchen countertops with new, raw materials. It requires machinery and factories to use fuels (fixatives, etc.) to get the job done. For things like plastics, when several types are combined to make a new product, the quality of the mixed plastics is less than that of new plastics.
Upcycling can sometimes be interchangeable with repurposing. My Great Grandmother used to have a plaque on the wall that said, “I’ve been doing so much, with so little, for so long, that now I can do anything with nothing.” It wasn’t far off the mark. For generations mothers have used worn out clothing to make quilts, curtains and rag rugs for their homes. They reused glass bottles as cloches in their gardens. They saved margarine containers to store their leftovers, glass jars for sorting nuts and bolts, and used newspapers and paper towel rolls for crafting, in the garden or barn, etc. Nothing was thrown away if it could be used somewhere. The broken rake became part of a tomato trellis; the watering can with holes rusted through became a planter. Egg cartons started seedlings, or became paint pallets.
Today, upcycling, I think is a bit different than simple repurposing. I think upcycling takes it a bit further. There’s often some artistic or creative talent involved. Using a milk jug as a cloche or making it into a birdfeeder is good repurposing. Taking an old belt or tie and making an interesting and aesthetically pleasing wristband or cuff is upcycling. Taking a holey wool sweater and tossing it in the corner or dog crate for your pet to curl up with is repurposing. Taking the same wool sweater and making it into a bag, pillow, coasters or journal covers, is upcycling.
It’s this idea that fuels my creative process for my ReIncarKnits line of products. The name says it best, I think. It is taken, obviously, from the words “reincarnation”, and “knits” combined. Reincarnation means after one life is done, to return in a new life, as something, or someone different. Since I started with knitted sweaters, the name ReIncarKnits was a natural fit.
I love to take a sweater, tie, belt, or whatever, evaluate the useful parts of it, and create something interesting and useful around it. I take great joy in cutting up garments now and seeing what becomes of them. Sometimes, I’m not sure what they will be until I start disassembling them. I want my finished products to be unique, of good quality, well constructed, simple in design, but also interesting. Most of my products are useful things rather than just art pieces, though artistic pieces for display certainly have value in life, too.
This is my take on upcycling and what it means. I hope it clarifies some terms and ideas for you, and helps you incorporate upcycling into your life, whether you do it yourself, or support the many handmade craftsmen and artists that are selling their upcycled products.
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