- Upcycling
- Process of taking post-consumer products and turning them into products with more value than the original
- Downcycling
- Recovery of material from post-consumer products that cannot be fully recycled
- Leads to products of lesser quality than original
- Ex. melting plastic bottles for use in polyester clothing
- Recycling
- Process of breaking down a product into its base components
- Can be made into products of comparable quality
- Ex. breaking down scrap paper into pulp to make new paper