“低碳”和“環?！边@兩個詞近幾年不斷出現在各種新聞報道和公益廣告中，人們也開始在日常生活中踐行低碳理念，為環境保護貢獻自己的力量。我們今天要說的upcycle就是不少人的實踐行動之一。

To upcycle something is to take a used object and adapt it in an innovative way to a new function. Unlike recycling, which usually involves breaking down the material an object is made from, before it is made into something else (thereby using more energy), upcycling involves using something in a new way without doing anything to reprocess the material it's made from. As well as being more energy efficient, another major benefit of upcycling is that it makes it possible to reuse items made of materials which couldn't be dealt with by conventional recycling methods. When something is upcycled, nothing, or very little, is discarded, with every component part or material having a potential use.

將某樣東西upcycle（即“升級改造”）其實就是用創新的方式將其改造以讓其發揮新的功效。循環利用（recycling）通常是將一樣東西的全部材料完全拆解，然后將其制作成別的東西（由此消耗了更多能源），與其不同的是，升級改造（upcycling）不會對原材料進行任何再處理，而是換個方式利用它們。除了節能以外，升級改造的另一個優點就是能夠讓那些傳統循環方式無法回收處理的物品再次被利用。某樣東西在被升級改造的過程中，很少或幾乎沒有材料會被廢棄，每個部件都有它潛在的用途。

An upcycled product is generally of higher value than the materials or objects used to create it – hence examples like metal ring pulls becoming jewellery items such as brooches or earrings, low-value coins becoming cufflinks, and so on.

升級改造后的產品通常比改造前的物品或材料有更高的價值，比如：金屬拉環做成的胸針或耳環等飾品，低面值的硬幣做成的襯衫袖鏈扣等等。

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（中國日報網英語點津 Helen 編輯）

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