The 135th Installment
What is upcycling?
by Shigeomi Koshimizu,
Professor
Last year, a one-year project was conducted under the theme of “upcycling” for Koshimizu project-based learning (PBL). Do you know about upcycling? You may hear the word “recycling” a lot, but many people do not know about upcycling. In fact, when our project team (Koshimizu PT) conducted a survey on upcycling, 98.0% of respondents said they were aware of recycling, while only 45.7% said they were aware of upcycling. It seems that awareness about upcycling is still low.
Getting back to the main question of what upcycling is, it is a concept that is also known as creative reuse, and originated in Germany. It is the act of increasing value beyond the limits of the recycling system.
- Recycling: to change recovered resources into equivalent materials
- Upcycling: to take products or materials that are no longer in use and transform them into a new dimension of value
By the way, recycling is an important activity to reduce waste, but it is also called “downcycling” because it is common to lose quality compared to the original material, such as recycled paper. On the other hand, upcycling is a creative activity that increases value, but it is also environmentally friendly.
Here is an easy-to-understand example of upcycling, and I would like you to get a clearer image of upcycling.
I will introduce the case of Fuyuki Shimazu[OR1] , a cardboard artist who appears in the documentary film “From All Corners[OR2] ,” which triggered the launch of the upcycling project.
Mr. Shimazu, who loves cardboard, travels to 30 countries around the world to collect cardboard that is thrown away on street corners and gives it new life as “carton wallets[OR3] ” that combine design and functionality. In addition, the interactions with people led by cardboard develops into a heartwarming story.
Figure 1 shows carton wallets made by Mr. Shimazu. Discarded cardboard may no longer have the role of packing things, but it still retains the characteristics of being strong, light, flexible, easy to process, and warm. Taking advantage of these characteristics, he creates products with a completely different dimension of value, such as carton wallets, which is truly upcycling.
Figure 1: Carton wallets and movie billboard (made of cardboard, of course)
Incidentally, details of the interview with the cardboard artist Shimazu, conducted by the Koshimizu PT last year, are posted on reference website [2] at the end of this column, so I hope you can take a look at it as well.
In the interview with Mr. Shimazu, the following words left a strong impression on me. “Actually, I wasn’t really conscious of it being environmentally friendly. First of all, the premise was that I like cardboard, and later the word ‘upcycling’ was added. It is important that it starts out as something fun, and I try hard not to impose eco-friendliness.”
Working on environmental issues in a fun way without overdoing it. This may be the key to realizing a sustainable society. Why not try your hand at upcycling (using your extra time at home during the COVID-19 pandemic)?
Thank you very much for reading this column. If you are interested in upcycling, please visit the following sites. IDEAS FOR GOOD is a well-known site in the sustainable community, and has an article written by a member of the Koshimizu PT. In addition, the activities of Koshimizu PBL2020 will be published in this year's academic bulletin. Please read through that as well.
Reference websites (articles written by Koshimizu PT members)
[1] Definition of upcycling:
IDEAS FOR GOOD: Definition
https://ideasforgood.jp/glossary/upcycle/
[2] Example of upcycling ①
IDEAS FOR GOOD: Bringing value to disused items. What a traveling cardboard artist wants to tell you
https://ideasforgood.jp/2020/12/10/toritsusangyo-uni-01/
[3] Example of upcycling ②
IDEAS FOR GOOD: Yuzuriba Ichikawa: Upcycling school backpacks to challenge isolated local communities
https://ideasforgood.jp/2021/03/06/yuzuriba/
[4] Example of upcycling ③
IDEAS FOR GOOD: China's upcycling of an abandoned bicycle into a “Shared Lady Beetle Library”