PRÓLOGO (foreword)

‘Upcycling’ or ‘up-cycling’ is a neologism and an umbrella term to describe a variety of material processes to create or modify a product utilising used or waste materials, components and products for equal or higher quality or value than the compositional elements. It is a promising alternative to mass production and consumption based on the use of new materials, reducing waste and energy consumption, and increasing resource efficiency. The concept and practices of upcycling have recently gained more prominence with the emerging circular economy. There has been a growing interest in upcycling by both academics and industries, evidenced by increased number of publications, initiatives and businesses worldwide. Despite a recent surge of books and articles on upcycling, however, to my knowledge, books providing comprehensive understanding of upcycling yet accessible for the general public are lacking especially in non-English languages. It is therefore my great pleasure to see this book by Chris filling in that gap. This highly informative and accessible book is made so by Chris’s long fascination with upcycling and his past years of interacting with international researchers and practitioners including myself. I utterly enjoyed reading this book and I learned a lot. Chris, in our conversations, once mentioned how much my work has been his inspiration for this book and other upcycling-related work that he has been doing. I think this book is going to be huge inspiration for myself and many more people from now on.