Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of downcycle.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Products designed with fewer, simpler, less-toxic, and more recyclable ingredients enable everything from carpets to car parts to be fully recycled at the end of their useful lives -- not simply "downcycled" into commingled, less-valuable materials.

    Joel Makower: The State of Green Business: Good News and Bad 2008

  • "The plastic used to create the bottles can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade and can't be recycled - it can only be 'downcycled' to a lower-grade plastic that isn't used for much," she said.

    unknown title 2009

  • Even in Europe, where PVC recycling is more advanced than in the United States, less than 3 percent of post-consumer PVC is recycled, and most of this is merely "downcycled" into other products which means there is no net reduction in the production of virgin PVC.

    CNS Magazine - Headline News 2009

  • Even in Europe, where PVC recycling is more advanced than in the United States, less than 3 percent of post-consumer PVC is recycled, and most of this is merely "downcycled" into other products which means there is no net reduction in the production of virgin PVC.

    CNS Magazine - Headline News 2009

  • Consequently, many postconsumer feedstocks are "downcycled" into less-demanding applications.

    Machine Design - 2008

  • "downcycled" into unrecyclable items like pipes or fence posts-so even recycling can't prevent landfills and oceans from piling up. this new discovery from scientists at IBM's Almaden Research Center and Stanford University is pretty fascinating.

    The New Republic - All Feed Bradford Plumer 2010

  • "downcycled" like most plastics, being remade into something lesser, PLA can be endlessly turned into new PLA, Hirshberg said.

    Phillies Zone 2010

  • And sometimes, recycled HDPE gets downcycled into other products like decking materials.

    Stiv J. Wilson: In Defense of Plastic Bag Bans Stiv J. Wilson 2011

  • And sometimes, recycled HDPE gets downcycled into other products like decking materials.

    Stiv J. Wilson: In Defense of Plastic Bag Bans Stiv J. Wilson 2011

  • And sometimes, recycled HDPE gets downcycled into other products like decking materials.

    Stiv J. Wilson: In Defense of Plastic Bag Bans Stiv J. Wilson 2011

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