Recycling in many cases means "downcycling" – in particular cases, however, it can also mean "upcycling".
Source: wiktionary
Upcycle
//ˈʌpsaɪk(ə)l//
Synonyms for "upcycle"
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
Translations
2 translations across 2 languages.
Malay
1 entries- kitar tinggi verb (to convert into new materials or products of higher quality and greater functionality)
Norwegian Bokmål
1 entries- oppsirkulere verb (to convert into new materials or products of higher quality and greater functionality)
Sample sentences
15 total sentences available.
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.
Source: wiktionary
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[…].
Source: wiktionary
[…] 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.
Source: wiktionary
Showing 4 of 15 available sentences.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.