Upcycling can look good, and be environmentally friendly

Chinese and UK college students and teachers work on their upcycling designs in Changsha, Hunan province.

For example, the number of products on Etsy.com, a US e-commerce site, tagged with the word "upcycled" increased from about 7,900 in January 2010 to nearly 30,000 a year later - an increase of 275 percent. In April 2013, that number increased by a whopping 879 percent to 263,685.

In China, upcycling is unknown among the public and lacking in commercial application. But both Zhang and Bjarnason believe in the development potential of upcycling.

"China is the world's factory, a powerhouse of manufacturing industries. There is a lot of industrial waste and leftovers waiting to be upcycled," Zhang says.

"And traditional Chinese culture promotes a thrift lifestyle of reusing old objects. For example, parents will save their elder children's clothes for the younger ones to wear."

Bjarnason points out that upcycling is a way of life in developing countries without people knowing it.

"Africans have great craftsmanship in making handicrafts from all kinds of materials. But they don't know they are actually upcycling the materials. They haven't realized the business potential of these upcycled products," Bjarnason says.

Besides public education about upcycling, designers also need to come up with appealing creations.