Originally published for Dispatches International
With so much economic growth in such a short amount of time, China is in constant cultural flux. In prior generations, people were impoverished; now, obesity is a problem. The effect of adding a middle class to Chinese society has shifted China’s stance to being not only the leading manufacturer of goods, but also the largest consumer in the world.
With the smog surrounding large Chinese cities due to coal burning, the environmental impact of this production and consumption becomes unfortunately clear. There are, however, forces to combat this impending environmental risk that are becoming trends for positive social change in China. These include participation in environmentalism and artistic design. A combination of these is called “upcycling.”
85-year-old Mrs. Lang crafts baby shoes from clothing that would otherwise go to waste. She has not heard of the term ‘upcycling’ but practices its tenets daily.
Suvi Rautio, who runs Upcycle Beijing, elaborates. “Upcycling moves materials back up the supply chain to be reused and re-purposed with higher value and without degradation to their latent value. By upcycling materials, people rethink the concept of waste and a product’s life cycle.”
The concept is simple. Upcycling goes beyond recycling: while recycling a wine bottle requires energy to be spent in collection, transportation, and transformation, upcycling a wine bottle requires less energy and will make that specific bottle something worth more than it was for its original purpose. An example of upcycling would be turning the wine bottle into a lantern or candle holder.
Literary Reportage 