UPCYCLING: Recycling that adds more value to waste materials

Today, the so-called "circular economy" is becoming increasingly important, a production model that involves the reuse or recycling of materials , with the aim of minimizing waste and extending the life cycle of a product as much as possible.

The amount of waste produced every year is enormous, and recycling is naturally becoming increasingly popular . But there isn't just one type: we can talk about recycling, downcycling, and upcycling .

In recycling In a classic example, the starting material is transformed into something of equal value (for example, plastic used to make more plastic).
Downcycling results in a product of lower value than the starting material (such as biogas).
Upcycling​ It is the most innovative recycling technique, as it allows waste to be transformed into materials of greater value than the original ones.

The first upcycling experiment dates back to 1963, spearheaded by Heineken. The famous beer company, in order to avoid wasting the glass from the countless bottles sold, launched the Wobo campaign aimed at converting the bottles into glass bricks useful in construction. The insight of the company founder, Alfred Heineken, along with architect John Habraken, was far ahead of its time; perhaps too far, because the campaign wasn't very successful.

The term "upcycling, " which we still use today, was coined in 1994. It was coined by a German engineer, Reiner Pilz, who in an interview spoke about recycling, saying: “I call recycling downcycling . What we need is upcycling , which gives old products a greater value, not a lesser one.”

Since then, upcycling has meant exactly that: reusing objects or materials to create a different and higher-quality product.

To be honest, Pilz's comment initially didn't cause much of a stir, and the term "upcycling" remained relatively obscure. It became more commonly used after the publication in 2002 of the book * Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things *, where the American architect William McDonough and the German chemist Michael Braungart discussed creative recycling and extending the product lifecycle, seeking to add value to waste materials.

To date, this recycling technique is mainly widespread in the fashion and crafts world, but there are also excellent prospects for the cosmetics sector.
In fact, bioactive compounds, enzymes, and active substances can be obtained from waste in the agri-food chain, which are very useful in the beauty sector, also because they are very effective.

There is a huge amount of waste available because tons of it are produced every day worldwide.
For example, fruit, as a result of the beverage production process, generates a huge volume of waste in the form of pulp, peel, seeds, and stems. Very often, these waste products contain much higher quantities of valuable bioactive compounds than the fruit juices themselves.
The same applies to vegetables and dried fruit.
It would be a real shame to waste them! That's why cosmetics are gradually moving towards raw materials created through upcycling processes , so as to have ingredients that are not only sustainable, but also perfectly biocompatible and very effective in terms of results.

An example of this process is the use in the new Baby Line of the bioactive fermented Manna, obtained from the fermentation of Manna extracted from the scraping of the ash trees of the Madonie.
This raw material possesses extraordinary moisturizing and protective properties and is perfect for both body and hair products.
It is precisely because of its effectiveness and gentleness that it has been chosen, along with Oats, as the main ingredient in the new Phitofilos line dedicated to children.

Another perfect example of upcycling concerns the material used to make the box for the Phitofilos Face Mask Set .
In fact, it is not simply recycled and recyclable paper, but a special ecological paper made from the waste products of the agro-industrial processing of corn.
By doing so, new value is given to an industrial waste that would otherwise end up in a landfill, also helping to reduce the carbon footprint by more than 20%.

Combining sustainability and functionality is certainly one of the greatest and noblest goals of cosmetics, and upcycling is undoubtedly the right path to take.

Together, we can be the change we want!