Downcycling VS Recycling
National Recycling Week helps define recycling even further
It’s National Recycling Week in Australia, an annual event initiated by Planet Ark back in 1996 to bring awareness to recycling behaviours and recognise recycling efforts which contribute to positive environmental outcomes.
This year’s theme of ‘What goes around, comes around’ ties in nicely to considering recycling and downcycling.
This post is looking at the next step beyond recycling behaviours. We can all do our best to recycle common household items but actual recycling happens when that item is sorted, processed and made into another product, hopefully the same product.
The most common way for households and businesses to recycle is via a co-mingled yellow lidded bin where mainly household items such as aluminium, glass, paper and cardboard and ridged plastics are accepted.
Sustainability has broad, far reaching definitions and actions across multiple sectors. We are now seeing brands, organisations and businesses jumping onto sustainability through the products they offer or the credentials related to their services.
One classic example is companies who are switching out virgin materials in favour of material which is classed to be a ‘recycled product’. This is a great option to avoid the use of virgin materials however does it stop there if the product can’t be recycled yet again?
There are two points here - is a product recycled or is it downcycled?
Let’s look at the difference between the two:
Recycling
Recycling happens when a product is sorted into like materials, then pelletised or shredded to then be used for manufacturing other products which can then be recycled again.
Think of the classic household recycling items of aluminium cans, glass jars, milk bottles and cardboard. These items can be turned back into more of the same item to be used again and eventually recycled again.
Down cycling
Downcycling is where an item has been processed such as pelletising and then is used in place of another item for a completely different purpose than it originally was.
Have you seen a swing tag on polar fleece material or a kids plush toy boasting ‘I used to be 27 bottles!’? This is downcycling.
Glass fines are being commonly used in roads to replace sand and gravel aggregate in the construction process. Asphalt and bitumen can be recycled for more road construction however if this is not favoured, the recycled glass missed the opportunity to become another glass jar product.
Well-known brand LEGO made the news about backing away from their plans to use recycled plastic to make new LEGO bricks. They found that using the recycled plastics didn’t stand up for the performance of the toy (LEGO is known for quality, well fitting building blocks) but actually sourcing and using recycled plastic would increase the company’s carbon emissions, something that the company had aimed to reduce as part of their overall sustainability strategy.
At the end of the day, we need to do something with the materials we collect for recycling. With export bans of recyclables in play within Australia and no real mandate or will to buy items made from recycled materials, dealing with the end recycled material can be an unknown fate.
Downcycling is essentially buying time before it becomes waste. Once the recycled product can no longer be turned into anything else, it will eventually become waste.
As a community, we like talking about recycling - it's safe, seen as green and seen as a positive personal action which is achievable for everyone as most people have access to and can associate with a recycling bin.
And now with more states implementing a container deposit scheme/10 cent refund on drink containers, there is an even easier opportunity to collect single streams of material to be easily remade into more of the same products.
With National Recycling Week’s theme of ‘What goes around, comes around’, Planet Ark have hit the message of recycling - ‘Keeping valuable materials in circulation for as long as possible’.
