Upcycling: A roadmap for achieving sustainable consumption and production post COVID-19
When the 17 Sustainable Development Goals was introduced in 2012 (later to be implemented from 2015 and achieved by 2030), numerous Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and institutions started putting in their efforts with a firm belief in achieving the SDGs by the given time. The discourse of the “Green Economy” has been widely observed since then: a plethora of campaigns and voices have been raised, and innovation and ideas to tackle global challenges have been discovered.
Despite these, the crisis of COVID-19 has raised questions as to whether these exertions will even matter at this point in time, with huge debates on the discourse happening around the world. Countries are now resetting their priorities and reallocating resources across different paradigms of development. What if the resetting of priorities from the green economy or low carbon economy results in a high carbon economy? What if the concern over sustainable and responsible production turns into the execution of imprudent measures? These are only some of the possible consequences that have been popping up in the heads of many economists, ecologists, and other concerned practitioners.
On the other hand, the start-up bubble has been significantly expanding, with a growing interest in green economy. Some of these start-ups are working on environment-related initiatives, such as waste management and clean energy. Even in a post-crisis situation where the stress of increased production will likely lead to a high-carbon economy, these start-ups could still help a lot without losing the “Green” mechanism path, if measures are observed properly.
How to build a sustainable economy?
As we take a closer look at waste-management-related start-ups, there is no lack of stories around the world about how existing waste materials can now be turned into treasures and products. There has been a growing interest in the concept of upcycle, or upcycling, which some start-ups have recently begun to work on. Upcycle is simply to recreate something creatively with new value. Upcycling is a process of re-purposing waste materials by integrating and transforming them into new products. What bewilders people is the difference between upcycling and recycling: recycling is simply reusing products in a cyclic way, whereas upcycling is creating new products through the creative reuse of existing waste materials.
There may or may not be value present in recycled products, but there should be a significant value in upcycled products. That is how it is connected with Sustainable Development Goal 12 (Sustainable Consumption and Production) as an essential aspect — not only does upcycling deal with responsible consumption; it significantly contributes to sustainable production as well. With landfill waste being a very serious concern over past decades and a source of distress for people (with both environmental and health concerns), upcycling is one concept that helps disrupt and mitigate such a problem.
Now the big question is: How can upcycling be an essential lead for SDG 12? Although the term “upcycling” is relatively new, its concept and use has been put into practice for a while now. “Upcycling” was first coined in the book titled Upsizing: The Road to Zero Emissions by Gunter Pauli in 1998, and later became mainstream in several books and articles.
Turning “Waste” into “Want”
The major goal of SDG 12 is to ensure sustainable consumption and production. Upcycling helps in reducing the number of waste going to landfills, and instead recreates these into new products by bringing them into a circular economy — this is the general idea of upcycling. It disrupts the idea or the concept of “waste” and turns it into a “want.” This doesn’t necessarily mean that all individuals should be upcyclers to transform waste into products. One can contribute by not throwing waste into landfills, and will instead segregate these for upcyclers or recyclers. Alternatively, one can also use upcycled products instead of buying newly-produced products. This can be one vital contribution towards what we call “responsible consumption.” This understanding between producers and consumers is equally proportional to the concept of “sustainable production and consumption.”
There should be another concern about the types of waste that could be upcycled. Generally, recyclable waste is preferred for use in upcycling. The most common types of recyclable waste include plastics, glass, paper, and textiles, although there are other solid waste types that could be recycled and upcycled. Textiles could be considered one of the major types of solid waste that could be recycled and upcycled, and lodged upon the circular economy.
Upcycling in Developing Countries
In terms of consumption and production, many may raise concerns over the need for upcycling in less-developed countries such as Nepal, where a myriad of people in the bottom of the pyramid are living hand-to-mouth. Interestingly, poor countries relatively prevail in upcycling compared to countries in other categories. Imagine a poor tailor collecting old clothes and creatively producing new products from it to use — that is a clear example of upcycling.
The answers don’t end here. People with experience and skills are most likely to benefit from upcycling. Instead of collecting raw materials and new fibers for the production of clothes, one could simply reuse existing old, used fibers for production which has two major pros: (1) it avoids the cost burden of acquiring new raw materials for production, which indeed helps in sustainability, and (2) it avoids excess materials going straight into the landfill. In addition, it also avoids the direct association of raw materials to carbon footprint. Concepts similar to these could be applied to the field of other solid waste types as well.
Upcycling could be perceived as a complex scheme, but it is not as impracticable as it sounds. We need to think of an economy where the cost of the production is marginal, resulting from less use of new materials for production, and less carbon emissions emerging from the production of new raw materials for products. Lastly, we need to sustain change in consumer behaviors that could be influenced in the long run through the concept of “sustainability.” Keeping all the essential aspects such as quality, cost, durability, and accessibility of such upcycled products could be the major turnaround in the paradigm of the “Green Economy” to put SDG 12 to the next big level. People have heard enough about bicycling, but very little about the concept of upcycling. Introducing people to the concept of upcycling should be a top priority. This will then be the place where the journey of the circular economy begins.
