I thought I was doing well with my recycling. Each week I’d separate bottles from cardboard and rinse out yoghurt pots. Putting them in the right bin made me feel virtuous about my effort to keep waste out of landfill. Then I looked into what happens to all that rubbish after I bin it. What I discovered about recycling was pretty depressing.
Just 44 percent (UK Government Statistics) of waste in England is recycled and over half still goes to landfill or incineration. Even worse, only 9 percent of plastic waste globally is recycled (OECD). We’ve been putting stuff in recycling bins for decades, but containers are still rotting in landfill. Recycling is good. Better than tossing everything in the trash. But it’s nowhere near as good for the planet as we’re led to believe.
When I started experimenting with waste avoidance at home I realised reducing what we discard altogether is far more impactful than recycling what’s left. That doesn’t mean recycling is bad, but reuse and upcycling are better options than trash or bins. Here’s what I learned about why reducing beats recycling.
## Why Does Reuse Beat Recycling?
It comes down to maths. Reuse saves 23 times more energy than recycling where data is available (Institute for Local Self Reliance). If you look at what happens during recycling that figure isn’t surprising. First your stuff is collected along with everyone else’s trash and sorted. Then it has to be cleaned, processed into raw materials and transported to manufacturing plants before being turned into new things that get transported to shops and purchased. All of that uses energy.
Upcycling or reuse bypasses most of that process. My glass jam jar that now holds buttons required no additional energy once I’ve washed it. Wooden pallets repurposed as furniture needed labour and sandpaper but hardly any of the energy intensive industrial processing involved in recycling wood.
Photo by FORK.culture on Unsplash
*Reduce greenhouse gas emissions. * Reuse also cuts greenhouse gas emissions more than recycling across most categories (Zero Waste Europe). Creating something new from recycled materials requires manufacturing. Manufacturing requires energy and creates carbon emissions. If I cut up an old t-shirt to make cleaning rags I prevent it going to recycling (which creates carbon emissions) and reuse it directly.
*Maintains higher material value. * Upcycling keeps material value higher than downcycling (Ellen MacArthur Foundation). Recycling is almost always downcycling. Paper fibres become shorter with each processing. Plastics are downcycled when they’re turned into something else. Metals are contaminated each time they’re melted down. Upcycling means turning that drawer into a planter. Or using an old ladder as a bookshelf. You’re not losing the intrinsic value of the material because you’ve created something of equal value from it.
*Helps limit resource extraction. * All of this matters more than a lot of people realise too. We’re consuming triple the amount of materials since 1970 (United Nations). Slowing that rate of consumption by keeping products in use longer has massive environmental benefits (European Commission). If you reuse things you don’t need to extract as many new resources to make new ones.
## Upcycling Ideas That Actually Work
Okay so let’s talk about what upcycling actually looks like around the house. A lot of ‘upcycling’ projects are incredibly niche, or don’t actually solve a problem. There’s a market for lovely home crafts made from trash, but most people don’t want to turn their house into a craft project. I’m more interested in practical steps that help you reduce waste.
### Glass Jars
Glass jars are honestly the easiest place to start. I use jars of all different sizes to store absolutely everything. Bulk buy pasta sauce jars are great for grains, legumes, seeds and nuts. Small jars are perfect spice storage. They don’t leach chemicals or flavours like plastic ones do. I have stacks of jars that I reuse in the kitchen and bathroom. Removing labels is as simple as soaking them in hot soapy water then wrestling with the sticky residue.
### Furniture Upgrades
Furniture is where you get serious financial value from upcycling. A solid wood dresser that someone is chucking on the curb because the paint is scratched or outdated can be refurbished for the price of some sandpaper and paint. I redecorated an entire spare room with secondhand furniture that I restored myself. Everything is sturdier than the disposable furniture you’ll buy new at the budget end of the market. Manufacturing furniture is also resource intensive, and cheap new furniture will be thrown away much faster than older solid wood stuff that just needs a little TLC.
### Textiles
Old t-shirts are my favourite rag for cleaning. They’re softer than anything else I’ve used and can be laundered then reused hundreds of times. Old towels cut into smaller pieces make great cleaning rags for jobs you don’t want to dirty your good rags with. Felted jumpers can be cut up for sewing patches on holes or stuffed into the bottom of curtains to prevent draughts.
### Garden
This is where it really gets fun. If you’ve got a garden there’s usually stuff local businesses give away for free that you can use. Wooden pallets are great for raised beds, composing bins or even vertical garden planter boxes. Old tyres are good potato planters (but make sure they haven’t been chemically treated before you use them in the garden). Broken plant pots are great for drainage or rough mulch. If something breaks in the kitchen that can’t be repaired think of ways it could be used in the garden first. An old colander planter makes great hanging baskets.
### Electronics
This is complex territory, so let’s be clear. Old electronics have complex components that are hard to recover and often not actually recycled at the end of their life. Sound systems almost always keep working fine. You can use speakers from broken radios for other projects. Old computer power supplies can power other things. Hard drives can be wiped then reused elsewhere for backup storage. Do not try anything you’re not comfortable and always be aware of safety concerns with electrical projects. But there is literally money in ‘broken’ electronics because they’re not actually broken, they just don’t work for the purpose you were originally using them for.
## 5 Mistakes That Sabotage Your Upcycling Efforts
You hoard stuff. I’ve known people amass entire rooms full of things they intend to upcycle ‘one day’. That’s not saving waste, that’s moving your rubbish problem from the bin to inside your house. Only things you actually use are doing any good. If it’s been sitting in your spare room for six months because you didn’t know what to do with it, pass it on to someone who will use it NOW.
You take on Pinterest projects. Don’t do it. A bottle cap wall hanging might look cool, but does your house really need more crap on the walls? Successful upcycling solves a problem in your home. Old jar lid plant pots? Great if you were about to go buy plant pots. Weird shaped tin cheese shelves? Only if you needed shelving for your cheese and old pies tins fit the bill. Make things you’re going to use every day. If it’s not something you actually need, you’re generating more waste.
You forget about safety. Lead paint. Chemical treated lumber. Bisphenol A. Hazardous substances don’t just vanish because you want to upcycle something. Paint made before 1978 has a very good chance of containing lead. Some plastics are not food safe. Lots of lumber is treated with chemicals before it ends up in your hardware store. Know what you’re working with. Don’t use things that could harm your children or pets for craft projects and understand the limitations of what you’re recycling. Kids toys aren’t safe cracked open for components.
You bite off more than you can chew. Furniture renovation is a time suck. It takes forever. Even small projects take weeks end once you get into details. Sewing requires basic tools and skills to get something worthwhile. Be realistic. If you only have time to do one small project a month, start there. A year from now you’ll still have half a kitchen renovation you don’t know what to do with.
You upcycle things that are already efficiently recycled. Aluminium cans have an awesome recycling system. The processes for recovering plastic from bottles is so efficient there’s more aluminium recovered from cans than is left in nature. Cardboard and paper have excellent recycling rates in most areas. Upcycle materials that aren’t economically viable to recycle like textiles. Furniture with multiple materials that are difficult to recover. Stuff nobody wants anymore.
## Sources & Useful Reading
Evidence: Numerous studies and reports corroborate the advantages of reuse over recycling. Analyses by organisations like the Institute for Local Self Reliance, Zero Waste Europe, and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation provide data showing that reuse significantly reduces energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and resource extraction compared to recycling.
Solid evidence reuse reduces demand for new stuff: Household waste data from the ONS shows that people in the UK generate over 25 million tonnes of waste per year. Globally waste is expected to increase by 70% (World Bank) as countries develop and consume more. Items that are reused don’t need to be manufactured new, which has flow on effects for resource extraction, energy used in manufacturing and transportation.
### Adapting to Your Lifestyle
There’s a lot more information here than what most people need to upcycle successfully at home. But just like with reducing waste, different households benefit from different approaches depending on their living situation. Here’s a brief guide to help you figure out what’s relevant to you.
Renters living in small apartments/upcyclers with little space to work. Glass storage, textiles, and practical furniture upgrades. Avoid anything that needs tools or space.
Homeowners with outdoor space. Garden stuff. Composting. You can really start to scale up the size of projects you do if you have somewhere to put them.
Families with children. Upcycling is great for keeping kids old toys out of landfill, but be careful about what you use them for. And always think safety first.
Households on a budget. Look around your house for what you need first. Can you repurpose what you already own before buying new? Upcycling saves money as well as plastic bottles.
## Benefits of Reducing Over Recycling
Instant impact. Upcycling isn’t magic. It won’t suddenly reduce your waste by 90% overnight. But you do know exactly what immediate impact an individual project will have. One glass jar cleaned out and reused won’t change the world. But you don’t throw that jar away. One skipped garbage bag might not seem like much. But if you skip that garbage bag every week? Start adding it up.
Saves you money. The circular economy has the potential to create 4.5 trillion (£3.4 trillion) dollars (£) of value (Accenture). Waste NOT that money by throwing away materials that could be useful. That £10 tin of paint can transform a cabinet that would cost £200 to replace into beautiful new furniture.
You learn new skills. Furniture upcycling teaches you how to repair and restore things. Getting comfortable modifying your possessions builds confidence and skills that can pay dividends later. Knowing you can solve problems by fixing things rather than buying new makes you less of a consumer.
Creative gratification. There’s something immensely satisfying about solving problems with upcycled materials. You just have to look at things differently. That bowl is never just a bowl again. A frustrated search for storage jars leads to jam jars neatly stacked in a drawer. Mental shifts like this can lead to huge reductions in waste.
Connect with like-minded people. Have you ever wanted to build a tool library in your neighbourhood? Learn to sew? Or check out your local repair cafe? Spending more time upcycling will naturally draw you to others with the same interests. Suddenly you’ve got people to lend you tools, give you half off textiles at the garage sale, and help you learn to sew on a button.
Reduces pressure to buy. Once you start thinking of every single item in your house as a potential something else it’s easier to stop buying junk. If you can make your own storage containers out of jars you won’t feel the need to buy them. Buy less crap and you automatically reduce your environmental impact.
## Step by Step Guide to Upcycling At Home
Step 1. Spend a week noticing what you throw away. (1 week)
Start paying attention to what you chuck. Next step is building systems around it so you’ll never actually throw it away.
Step 2. Begin a glass jar storage system and repurpose old textiles into cleaning rags. (1 month)
Low hanging fruit. No special skills or tools required. Build momentum with early wins.
Step 3. Invest in basic tools based on the types of projects you want to do. (2-3 months)
Paint. Brushes. Basic hand tools. Saw. Drill. Sandpaper. Buy quality secondhand where possible.
Step 4. Upgrade furniture or do your first big thing. (3-6 months)
Got tools? Got experience? Dig in and replace stuff that actually needs replacing. Don’t make junk because you can now.
Step 5. Develop systems for ongoing upcycling. Find people to bounce ideas off. (6 months+)
Get really good at noticing what can be reused before you trash it. Meet other nerds to share skills and materials with. Join a tool library. Attend repair cafes. Host material swap meets.
| Item | Cost (£) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Basic hand tools | 30-50 | Screwdrivers, hammer, basic sandpaper. Buy secondhand where possible |
| Paint & finishing supplies | 20-40 | You don’t need much. Invest in versatile colours |
| Storage containers | 10-20 | To keep miscellaneous components & materials |
| Sewing supplies | 15-25 | Good scissors, needle & thread for stitching rags |
Total Cost: £75-135
The biggest lesson I’ve learned over the last few years of putting reuse first? Once you start seeing everything as potential something else you never look at stuff the same way again. Reducing doesn’t fit into everyone’s lives. But upcycling can. And once you start, waste NOT that bottle jar.
If you’re just starting out, check out our complete guide to household waste reduction. It walks you through everything you need to dramatically reduce your waste without upcycling a thing.
