Upcycling, Downcycling, and Recycling

Tweet

So many new terms, do you know them all? Let's start with the basic one - RECYCLING We're all probably pretty familiar with this one because we separate our trash into different materials and set them out for recycling. What they do when they get them is cleaned them to remove contaminants and then process them into raw materials for manufacturing new products. Now let's talk about UPCYCLING This one is considered the artistic one because it deals with taking useless or unwanted products and transforming them into new materials or products like in a creative or artistic way. The differentiation here from downcycling is that the useless items are transformed into something of higher value. Finally, there's DOWNCYCLING. The opposite of upcycling, this process of recycling materials turns unwanted things into new products of lower quality or reduced functionality compared to the original material. (a little help here with the definition from the Internet)