Downcycling

Downcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of lesser quality and reduced functionality. Downcycling aims to prevent wasting potentially useful materials, reduce consumption of fresh raw materials, energy usage, air pollution and water pollution. Its goals are also lowering greenhouse gas emissions (though re-use of tainted toxic chemicals for other purposes can have the opposite effect) as compared to virgin production. A clear example of downcycling is plastic recycling, which turns the material into lower grade plastics.