A Review on Upcycling: Current Body of Literature, Knowledge Gaps and a Way Forward

Kyungeun Sung, Sustainable Consumption Research Group, School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment

Kyungeun Sung Sustainable Consumption Research Group

School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment

A Review on Upcycling: Current Body of Literature,

Knowledge Gaps and a Way Forward


Table of contents

Introduction

Method

Results

Discussion and conclusion


Introduction


Industrial Upcycling as Improvement of Existing Businesses

Cradle to Cradle Principles: Material health: Value materials as

nutrients for safe, continuous cycling

Material reutilization: Maintain continuous flows of biological and technical nutrients

Renewable energy

Water stewardship

Social fairness Source: www.mbdc.com (McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry)

McDonough, William, and Michael Braungart. Cradle to cradle: Remaking the way we make things. MacMillan, 2009.

Towards eco-efficiency + eco-effectiveness (McDonough and Braungart, 2009)


Industrial Upcycling as a New Business

Tom Szaky. Outsmart waste: The modern idea of garbage and how to think our way out of it. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2014

Part of waste management strategy and for sustainable production (Szaky, 2014)

Source: http://www.terracycle.co.uk/en-UK/

Source: http://www.freitag.ch/


Individual Upcycling as a Lifestyle

Cristin Frank. Living simple, free & happy: How to simplify, declutter your home, reduce stress, debt & waste. Betterway Books, 2013

A lifestyle of reduction and towards sustainable consumption (Frank, 2013)


Growing Publications in Upcycling Google Books search:

“upcycle” OR “upcycling”

About 9,290 pages with overlapping and irrelevant search items

After page 31, hardly any relevant books found search stop

120 out of 310 books were identified as relevant

96% (n=115) published between 2008 and 2014

62.5% (75) published between 2012 and 2014

A number of the searched books per year between 1999 and 2015 (from Google Books search conducted in September, 2014 by the author)


Growing Publications in Upcycling

Google Scholar theses search:

[“upcycle” OR “upcycling”] AND [“dissertation” OR “thesis”]

About 423 pages with overlapping and irrelevant search items

After page 25, hardly any relevant books found search stop

41 documents are relevant based on abstracts

90% (37/41) published between 2009 and 2014

A number of the searched theses per year between 2001 and 2014 (from the theses search on Google Scholar conducted in September, 2014 by the author)


Aim of the Paper

Rising interest in upcycling manifested by industrial interest + increased publication levels

But no major academic review

this paper analyses and summarises the current body of literature on upcycling, focusing on:

different definitions

trends in practice

benefits

drawbacks and barriers


Method


Method

1. Select research questions

2. Select bibliographic databases

3. Apply practical screening criteria including search terms

4. Do the review and synthesise the results Source: Arlene Fink. Conducting research literature reviews. Sage, 2014

Following the concept and systemic approach of literature review (Fink, 2014)


Step1: Select research questions

1. What has been the trend in upcycling publication over time?

2. What is the definition of upcycling?

3. What are the trends in practices?

4. What are the known benefits, drawbacks and barriers?


Step2: Select bibliographic databases

Acknowledging the relative newness of the term, upcycling, a wide range of major digital academic databases were selected:

Elsevier

Emerald

Google Scholar

IEEE

Metapress

Scopus

Springer

Taylor & Francis

Web of Science

Wiley


Step3: Apply practical screening criteria including search terms

1. Search keyword: “upcycle” or “upcycling”

2. Only English publications

3. Including: journal articles, conference proceedings, academic books and book chapters, research institute reports

4. Excluding: theses, book reviews, editorials, working papers, self-published books and practical books


Step4: Review and synthesise the results

1. Search in July, 2014

2. 297 items dating from 1994 to 2014 with overlapping results

3. Removed duplicate results

4. Assessed content relevance by reading abstracts

5. 47 relevant pieces of literature

6. Added 8 highly relevant materials

7. 55 (=n) relevant publications used for descriptive analysis and synthesis


Results: Descriptive Analysis


Descriptive analysis: Trends in Upcycling Publication

(from the literature search conducted in July, 2014)

N=55

26 journal articles

11 conference proceedings

9 book chapters

5 books

3 periodicals

1 report

Steady growth between 1994 and 2007

Rapid growth since 2008

Cumulative frequency of the number of the sampled publications




Conceptual papers or books (36%; n=20)

Case studies (21%; 12)

Experimental studies (16%; 9)

Literature review and document analysis (13%; 7)

Approaches adopted in the sampled publications




Subject areas of the sampled publications

Engineering and technology (40%; n=22)

Design (31%; 17)

Business (16%; 9)




Unspecified (29%; 16)

Fashion and textiles (25%; n=14)

Plastics recycling (16%; 9)

Construction (7%; 4)

Organic waste treatment (5%; 3)

Sampled publications distribution by industrial (sub)/sector




USA, UK and Germany take the lead as single countries

North America (USA only 44%) and Europe (42%) are the main publication regions.

Asia (11%) and Pacific Islands (3%) minor roles in publication

Sampled publication distribution by country


Results: Synthesis of the results


Synthesis of the results: 1. Definitions of Upcycling

1. First recorded use of the term, upcycling: “Recycling, I call it down-cycling. They smash bricks, they smash everything. What we need is upcycling, where old products are given more value, not less.” (Pilz, 1994)

2. More popularized used of the term since McDonough and Braungart: “A technical nutrient is a material or product that is designed to go back in to the technical cycle, into the industrial metabolism from which it came. […] Isolating them from biological nutrients allows them to be upcycled rather than recycled – to retain their high quality in a closed-loop industrial cycle” (McDonough and Braungart, 2002)

Two most frequently cited definitions


Synthesis of the results: 1. Definitions of Upcycling

1. Material recovery of which the major aim is to maintain value and quality of materials safely in their second life and beyond by the improved recycling or remanufacturing

2. Product (re)creation for higher values and qualities by transforming, repurposing, or refashioning waste or used materials/products either by companies or by individuals

(30 with explicit definitions or descriptive statements; 19 implying the meaning within the context)

Two dominant viewpoints in the sampled publications


Synthesis of the results: 2. Trends in Upcycling Practices

1. Practices in material recovery emphasise the importance of initial design and process innovation in companies for higher upcyclability and safety.

2. Practices in product (re)creation with used materials at the individual level claimed to be deep-rooted collective human behaviours.

3. The commercial perspective of product (re)creation with used materials recently acknowledged and known scope of new products by upcycling is broad despite the questionable market potential of most of these product categories.


Synthesis of the results: 3. Benefits of Upcycling

Environmental benefits Economic benefits Social benefits

1. Solid waste reduction and prevention

2. Landfill space saving 3. Raw materials use

reduction 4. Energy use reduction 5. Greenhouse gas

emission reduction

Cost savings and new profit opportunities for Manufacturers Entrepreneurs Consumers

1. Poverty alleviation in developing countries

2. Psychological well-being and socio-cultural benefits in developed countries


Synthesis of the results: 4. Drawbacks and Barriers of Upcycling

Many and varied, depending on the level of the upcycling (industrial vs. individual), types of industry, and contextual situations (e.g. market dynamics, regulations and policies, socio-cultural background, etc.)

For industrial upcycling For individuals (consumers, makers, entrepreneurs, etc.)

For example: 1. Possible trade-offs (e.g. durability/reliability vs. how easy to disassemble) 2. Immature upcycling streams 3. Inefficiencies in collecting, cleaning, sorting, homogenising 4. Low awareness and knowledge level

For example: 1. Relatively low-volume solution for waste reduction/prevention 2. Small current market size 3. Niche status of upcycled products 4. Limited number of consumers who are willing to separate and clean waste for upcycling purposes


Discussions & Conclusion


Future research areas

1. Comparative study to clarify the fundamental differences/similarities between upcycling and other similar constructs

2. Case studies of real-life industrial practices in material recovery

3. Historical study on individual upcycling as deep-rooted collective human behaviours

4. Research into potential of households as a group of sustainable producers and consumers based on individual upcycling

5. Feasibility and marketability studies focusing on specific industry and product category

6. … 10.


Limitations

1. A search results discrepancy on half of the databases: Google Scholar, Taylor & Francis, IEEE, Elsevier and Emerald (case sensitive)

2. Keyword-based identification excluding similar concepts with different terms such as Cradle to Cradle or Circular Economy

Cannot claim that the findings can be generalised beyond the reviewed literature body


Contributions

A generic understanding of the neologism, upcycling, and how it has been understood and practiced

A number of unexplored avenues worth investigating


Thank you! Any question?

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