Recycling and Upcycling: An Overview

Our products like the bracenets, dog leashes and keychains are completely new - and yet they are made from previously used material. How does that fit together? It's simple: we upcycle salvaged ghost nets that were made as fishing nets for many years of use in harsh environmental conditions! Dive in to learn more about the difference between upcycling and recycling.

Our products such as the Bracenets , dog leashes and key chains are completely new - and yet they are made from previously used material. How does that fit together? We upcycle former fishing nets that have been manufactured for many years of use under harsh environmental conditions and are easily suitable for everyday use on the wrist. In this article, we take a closer look at what upcycling actually is, why we produce it this way and what the difference is to recycling.

According to use: passing on, recycling and upcycling

Not everything we no longer need ends up in the trash. We pass a lot of things on, for example to family or friends. We are aware of these separations of things - unlike when we dispose of our daily waste. We rarely ask ourselves where our packaging, plastic bags and so on end up - that is ultimately the job of the garbage collectors. At least in Germany we are good at separating waste so that packaging waste can be recycled. How much of it is actually recycled is another question - depending on the source and the method of counting, 46% , 16% or just 5.6% of our plastic waste is recycled.

Recycling is an important form of waste management because we cannot pass on all products and most opened packaging, such as cans, no longer serves a purpose once opened. However, there is another method of giving waste a new life: upcycling. This is where waste is upgraded and used for new purposes. Below we will first look at recycling in more detail and then explain the upcycling process that we also use to make our products.

Recycling – reuse on a large scale

Recycling – in German, by the way, “Rezyklieren”, did you know that? – involves returning used materials to the product cycle (“re”: back, “cycle”: cycle). First, they are separated and sorted by machine in waste sorting plants or sometimes even by hand on an assembly line. Then plastic, metal and glass are melted down separately according to type, paper is shredded and laid out in new sheets, smoothed and dried.

To ensure that sorting systems can separate the waste properly, packaging should be dismantled into its individual components at home. (Source: ZEIT ONLINE)

Unfortunately, not all plastic packaging is recyclable. If too many layers of film or mixed materials are processed that cannot be separated from each other, this waste is called “downcycling”: it is used to make inferior materials or it is burned to generate energy. This shows how important it is to separate waste correctly and calls on manufacturers to produce packaging that can be easily broken down into its components. The Nature Conservation Association has developed a “small waste guide for special cases” that you can download from here you can see.

Recycling alone is not the answer

The manufacturing process of consumer goods and products is complex. Raw materials are taken from the environment and sometimes delivered over long distances, and a lot of energy is also used in production. Recycling offers the advantage that no new resources have to be used and the extraction of secondary raw materials requires significantly less energy than the initial production of raw materials such as glass. If this step also takes place completely locally, that is ideal.

Things become more critical when plastic waste is shipped abroad, processed there and the finished products are then sent back again. Recycling does take place here, but the long transport routes put a damper on the improved ecological balance.

In addition, it is unavoidable that new resources are added to the recycling process. This is why recycling only appears third in the waste hierarchy: reduce, reuse, recycle. In addition to prevention, reusing waste, such as upcycling, is a more sustainable alternative.

Why Upcycling is Important

A toast to the upgrading of waste: upcycling. Already used material does not end up in the trash, but is converted for new purposes or reused. Unlike recycling, raw materials are not specially produced, but are reused in their existing form, which saves resources and energy. With a little ingenuity, there are no limits to the application of upcycling.

Upcycling products can be made from the material of just one waste product, from several combined or by adding other materials, either recycled or newly produced. In whatever form, upcycling is an important step towards a sustainable lifestyle, as we increase the lifespan of products or materials and move away from the mentality of always needing something new. Ideally, the entire production cycle follows a resource-saving approach in which the entire production path is taken into account and the value chain is constantly optimized.

Upcycling at BRACENET

Upcycling is a topic close to our hearts. We deal with it every day, because our products such as the Bracenets, key chains and dog leashes are upcycling products. We use the Ghost nets that we with our partners Healthy Seas and  Ghost Diving as well as discarded fishing nets directly from fisheries. These nets would otherwise continue to drift through the oceans until they finally decompose into dangerous microplastics after 400-600 years. By giving new life, we free the oceans of plastic waste and at the same time create new products without making new materials and consuming a lot of water or energy. We are also happy to repair your Bracenet if it ever breaks.

Upcycling? The trend is increasing!

More and more fashion designers are also taking the path of upcycling and thus going against the tide of fast fashion and overproduction. A label that we have had the pleasure of getting to know up close and with which we work is Bridge & Tunnel . What makes the label so special, you can here in our article.

But upcycling is not just for manufacturers like Bracenet or Bridge&Tunnel, it is a method that you can use to reuse old things at home. Whether we share or repair objects, take clothes apart and sew them back together, make shopping bags out of old pillowcases, or create collector's items out of pallets: there are no limits to your imagination (and implementation). A tip for inspiration: On Instagram alone, there are 1.8 million posts under the hashtag #Upcycling.

Upcycling and Recycling: Intersections and Differences

To compare upcycling and recycling in more detail, we have prepared their essential characteristics for you in the following table:

upcycling	recycling
Material had a first use	Material had a first use
Material was classified as waste before further processing	Material was classified as waste before further processing
The original material is retained and enhanced through resource-saving processing. This requires less energy.	Material can be converted into raw materials from which new products can be made. This often requires a high level of energy input.
Prerequisite: Original material has a longer shelf life and can still be used	Prerequisite: Separation of materials as pure as possible so that metals, glass and plastic can be processed into individual types