Downcycling is the recycling of a material into a material of lesser quality. The obvious example is the recycling of plastics, which turns them into lower grade plastics. This term was coined by William McDonough and Michael Braungart in the book Remaking the Way We Make Things.

The terms downcycle and downcycling were first used by Reiner Pilz of Pilz GmbH and Thornton Kay of Salvo Llp in 1993, along with the terms upcycle and upcycling.

See also

• Plastic recycling

Recycling | Waste management