Getting to Know Your Waste Terms

What is the difference between recycling, reuse, repurpose, upcycling and more?

Zero Waste: is a philosophy with the goal to minimise waste that ends up in incinerators or landfills or impacts negatively or other people. It is a holistic pursuit that attempts to be systematic and scalable aiming for long term permanent solutions.

Recycling: when a material is broken down so that it can be used to make something new. “The action or process of converting waste into reusable material.” Recycling is suppose to result in reduced demand for new material because the recycled material can be used instead. Recycling plastic is a broken system with poor demand on the market. Thus National Geographic reported that only 9% of plastic out of all the plastic waste that has been produced has been recycled (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/plastic-produced-recycling-waste-ocean-trash-debris-environment)

To understand how much is actually being recycled, see here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-waste-data/uk-statistics-on-waste

Reuse / Reusable: repeatedly using an item without significant alteration of the original (eg jars can be re-used – after cleaning and removing the label but without further modifcations). This is usually an individual effort except for some deposit systems and bottle re-use programs. Since 2022, the UK government has been promising to bring in reverse vending machines that enable improved collection of plastic bottles, glass bottles and jars, and metal cans. This would also reduce the amount of “take away” litter.

Repurpose: using a material in a way not originally intended but without significant alteration. This is usually not scalable but is typically done on a project basis. Eg using an old yoghurt container as a pot for plants. There is a limit to how many yoghurt containers can be used in this way.

Upcycling: turning a discarded product into something useful / of higher quality. Crafting with waste materials can be included in this. This is rarely scalable – meaning it is usually done on a one-off basis and is not an effective solution for waste reduction because it is time consuming and there may be little demand for the end product. A lot of upcycling requires the use of new materials as part of the project (paints, glues, some new parts, etc). Craft projects are generally not effective at waste reduction though they can sometimes be used to good effect as an artistic statement about waste.

Incineration: is sometimes referred to in the media as “recycling” as in “waste is recycled into energy” “Swedes recycle nearly 100 per cent of their household waste”. This is NOT recycling – it destroys the material, it does not recover it which is an essential part of recycling.

To connect with the eco-team at St John’s: