Upcycling is loosely defined in literature and generically can be intended as increasing the value of residual material. Sung (2017) reviews different upcycling definitions and concludes that “Overall, the central idea about upcycling is converting or transforming waste materials or used products into high value or quality outputs, either as products or materials”. This definition partly overlaps with the ISO 59004:, 2024 definition of recycling as “Activities to obtain recovered resources for use in a process or a product, excluding energy recovery”, and as “Recover and process material to obtain the same (high grade) or lower grade quality through activities such as recovery, collection, transport, sorting, cleaning and re-processing.” (ISO 59004:204). Milad (2025) distinguishes between upcycling as “convert waste resources into more valuable or superior goods” and recycling as “convert waste resources into new, comparable, or less valuable goods” adding that “recycling is more intensive than upcycling: it requires more processing (energy and additional material)”. Upcycling occurs when a residual material from one company in the industrial network (supplier) is utilized by another company (user) that can make use of it in a product manufacturing process, because the residual material can effectively substitute primary material. In relative terms, the material has higher value for the latter company than the former and thus the upcycling step increases the value of the material (or prevents the material from losing value).

Anna Ruini, Anja Maria Bundgaard, Mette Alberg Mosgaard, Søren Løkke, Massimo Pizzol, Normative and empirical solutions to the upcycling dilemma, Sustainable Production and Consumption, Volume 54, 2025, Pages 466-475, ISSN 2352-5509, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2025.01.022. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S235255092500020X)

Source category: Scientific and Technical Literature

Denotes a post-recycling activity that captures functional or market differentiation value, rather than material entropy reduction. It therefore acts through a temporary decommoditization premium.

Billen, New Recycling and Upcycling Definitions Rooted in Thermodynamic and Commodity Economic Logic, Circular Economy and Sustainability, Volume 6, article number 341 (2026) https://doi.org/10.1007/s43615-026-01078-9

Source category: Scientific and Technical Literature