Upcycling is the concept of redesigning recyclable products to maximize their value. Innovative upcycling can help people reconnect with materials and create making cultures and communities. Upcycling is a term that encompasses a variety of ‘creative' repair, reuse, repurpose, refurbishment, redesign, remanufacture, and recycling techniques.  The social, economic, and political background in which upcycling activities take place has an effect on them. Upcycling can be divided into two types: upcycling motivated by need to meet basic human needs, such as using waste materials to build shelters in informal settlements, and upcycling as an art or craft to create beautiful artifacts. Upcycling enhance life with style and simplicity and grounding innovation with sustainability.

 Although art and survival motives are distinct, this is not to say that reuse motivated by need cannot be done with great skill and artistic quality. While the motivations for art and survival are distinct, this does not preclude reuse driven by need from being achieved with great skill and creative quality. Upcycling isn't a modern activity; it's been a part of human life for centuries. We could argue that making tools out of flints and bone or building shelters out of local vegetation was a type of upcycling when the first prehistoric peoples populated the earth. Despite the growing popularity of emerging practitioners and increasing resources (e.g. conferences, websites), upcycling is still a limited activity.

Considering the potential of product upcycling as a means of waste reduction and sustainable production and use, the most pressing issue from the standpoint of sustainable design could be how to scale up this fringe activity into a mainstream practice that has a greater effect on society and the environment. To achieve a significant degree of scaling-up, it's logical to develop successful change strategies and techniques, which necessitates an understanding of what drives and encourages upcycling (i.e. its determinants). Upcycling is a technique for repurposing recycled materials into something of higher value and/or quality. It's becoming more widely recognized as a viable way to minimize material and energy use while still promoting sustainable production and consumption. The idea of upcycling has gotten more attention from researchers and business practitioners in recent years because of this and other foreseeable benefits.

I have been adopting zero waste life style as much as I can. I have also been upcycling the materials to the best of my knowledge.

Reference: http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/2559/1/217970_1133.pdf