Pronunciations
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/ˈʌpsaɪk(ə)l/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
- Received-Pronunciation
Verb
To convert (waste materials, etc.) into new materials or products of higher quality and greater functionality.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Recycling in many cases means "downcycling" – in particular cases, however, it can also mean "upcycling".
More examples (5)
As I child I made thins from "nothing." If I didn't have any store-bought materials, I would go to my closet and cut up my least favorite article of clothing and make something new with it. It just made sense to use, reuse, upcycle and make things from scratch.
For Tom Szaky, founder and chief executive of TerraCycle, which collects used plastic bags, juice pouches, cookie wrappers and other items that cannot be recycled and ‘upcycles’ or morphs them into items such as messenger bags, tote bags, and pencil cases, trash is a raw material and the key to a multimillion-dollar, ecocapitalist (ad)venture[…].
[…] PFNC takes empty shipping containers that are too expensive to recycle or ship back empty to China and converts them into affordable, stackable homes for Mexican workers. […] PFNC makes enough money to continue upcycling shipping containers costs and to invest for future growth.
Electronic waste—or ewaste—has provided a business opportunity for certain companies, which disassemble old computers, monitors, fax machines, printers, and other electronic equipment that they obtain from businesses and individuals[…]. These ecycling businesses reclaim the glass from monitors, plastics from casings, and metal from wires and circuit boards and ship the components to manufacturers that upcycle the materials. (Upcycling is a type of recycling that takes discarded materials and makes a new product with a value higher than that of the original materials.)
Upcycling requires that innovation be integrated with sustainable product development. Several innovative products can be manufactured by upcycling the unrecyclable wastes, such as plastic rejects from municipal solid waste. Such products include bricks, interlocks, manhole covers, table toppings, and road ramps[…].
To promote into a more productive or useful role.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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More examples (2)
One designer I know was known for his vibrant use of color in his fashions. When he purchased a weekend home not too far from me, he had this crazy idea to paint the bark of the trees in different bright shades. […] To me, this wasn't upcycling the Great Outdoors, but more like upchucking on it.
Friday night's crowning victory at The Hawthorns was the 25th in 30 league matches since Antonio Conte's decisive re-gearing of his team in September, the tactical switches that have coaxed such a thrilling run from this team of bolt-ons and upcycled squad players, most notably Victor Moses, who was dredged out of the laundry bin in the autumn to become a key part of the title surge.
"[...] We are upcycling the trains we have, to ensure they last longer and give a better service."
Noun
A period of a cycle where something is increasing or improving.
- Examples
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More examples (2)
You could probably take care of yourself through the cycles but during the period when one of the upcycles—it should be an upcycle for your business—you just said you are going through a worse depression from that standpoint than a normal business depression?
The upcycle has lasted so long that many economists even doubt the old cycle theories. Others try to label the lull in 1962 and again this year as the downcycles.
Over the past decade Cambodia has made considerable strides, achieving sustained growth and poverty reduction, aided in part by the global upcycle.
More examples (1)
SECTOR ROTATION stock investment strategy in which mone is moved from one industrial sector to another in an effort to catch respective upcycles and thus outperform the overall market.
Many historical real estate cycles show that the overall up-cycle proceeds with long periods of rising rents and occupancy rates.
More examples (1)
It is precisely these logical anomalies, paradoxes and problems, which create Samsara's wheel of eternal repeating up-cycles which is followed by eternal repeating down-cycles and vice versa (for example life and death, success and fiasco, joy and sorrow) – as well as the ignorance and suffering when you are caught into this wheel, for example in the experience of nightmare and anxiety.
Verb
To transform an old product into a newer and more expensive form with a different use