Benefits of Upcycling

Upcycling is the latest trend behind sustainable breakthroughs that has taken the industry by storm and is set to be the new face of evolving waste management systems in the circular economy. It helps the environment in five ways: minimizing landfills, reducing greenhouse emission, cleaner waterways, reducing production of new products, and providing an opportunity for those in poverty to break free.

Minimising landfills: Everyday large quantities of waste go into landfills-- unused products and materials, organic waste, and general trash. This landfill waste takes hundreds of years to decompose, thus rendering the land t occupies both useless and hazardous. Upcycling on the other hand removes the need for products to end their life-cycle in a landfill. Instead, the discarded items can be given another life, for example, a T-shirt can be woven into a beautiful mat for one's home, or a handy beach bag. With upcycling, there is no limit to creativity, it allows an item that would end up in a landfill to be repurposed into a useful item.

Reduction of greenhouse gas: By minimising the amount of landfill, it in turn reduces the amount of CO2 emissions and greenhouse gas that is being released into the atmosphere. These emissions contribute to climate change and global warming, which poses more serious threats to both the planet and living creatures. By lowering emissions, we in turn help protect the environment.

Cleaner waterways: As well as releasing emissions into the air, landfills pollute groundwater through ‘leachates’-- which is the liquid that drains out from landfills. By reducing the amount of space occupied by landfills, it reduces the risk of leaching from occurring, resulting in unpolluted groundwater. Not to mention the trash that make its way into the waterways from careless consumers.

Reduction in production: Upcycling promotes the use of old items, rather than actively buying new items. This translates into reduce demand for goods that need to be manufactured, which reduces energy and water consumption, and the use of raw materials, and conserving global resources. While recycling is beneficial, it requires the item to be broken down into raw materials before they can be reused. With upcycling there is no need to use energy or water to break down products, instead the product or parts of the product are used to make a new item.

Poverty relief: In developing countries upcycling gives individuals a chance to make a living by selling upcycled products such as houseware, gifts, jewelry, and children’s toys. Raw materials are expensive in developing areas, and people often have no choice but to re-fashion items into new ones-- for example, turning rubber tires into practical buckets.