Individual Upcycling in the UK: Insights for Scaling up Towards Sustainable Development

Abstract

Community-level innovation or action for sustainability is an important strand for sustainable development. As such, researchers investigated grassroots innovations, community-driven development or bottom-up approach. Many studies have focused on expert-led poverty alleviation projects, market-led social enterprises, or activists-led social movements for sustainable development. Relatively little attention has been paid to rather spontaneous, unorganised, citizen’s collective actions. This paper, therefore, aims to analyse one such example in the UK from the perspective of Design for Sustainable Behaviour; and to suggest how behavioural insights could feed into the development of strategies for scaling up collective actions towards sustainability. The selected action (or behaviour) is individual upcycling—creation or modification of any product from used materials for a product of higher quality or value than the original. Interviews with 23 British residents with practical upcycling experiences were analysed to identify some characteristics in individual upcycling behaviour. The results expand current understanding of individual upcycling in terms of the variance in behaviour, behavioural context and potential group differences based on demographic attributes. The paper further links the analytic insights to the ideas of scaling-up.

Appendix: Participant Answer Quotations

Theme	Age	Participant answers
How often or how long
Depends on the project (7)	Under 30 (2Fs & 2Ms)	F01: “depends on what craft projects I am doing. Because I’ve been doing craft, knitting, crochet, sewing, and it depends on what project is, sometimes I upcycle things, and sometimes I buy things new.” F02: “depends on I’ve got in really. If I find something that I like, I work on it until it’s finished, and it would be so over lunch or any evenings, or if I just need a break. Sometimes I have more than one thing at the same time, and sometimes I don’t do anything for a couple of weeks and I pick up something new. I won’t pick up anything I don’t like. So if I don’t see anything, I won’t, I won’t do.” M01: “in terms of the raspberry pi thing, electronics, that’s taking a long, long time, a year or so. ehh. in terms of things to do with woodwork, it’s very quick coz it’s easy. It’s hard to make mistakes, if you are with something like electronics. It is very easy to make a little mistake on things don’t work. So, it’s completely different, electronics, takes long time, woodwork, takes not very long at all. With the patio, and the path, umm, the only reason I take a long time is because it’s a lot of labour, a lot of work to do it, to lift the big stones and everything. It takes lots of efforts.” M03: “It’s one of those things I generally get into it and finish it and then not do anything for a while and then pick up something else and finish it and then move on. So it’s in fits and starts rather than every weekend type of thing.”
	30–49 (1F & 1M)	F04: “Probably a couple of times a week, for an hour or so. I tend to have a specific project that I do that I spend longer on over a shorter space of time. If I have got a project, I will spend hours a day for a week or so. But if I haven’t got a project on the go, I might not touch for days on it.” M05: “It really varies. […] it varies so much. sometimes… it just really varies. Well, the majority of my work is admin and correspond to projects. The actual making has been about maybe 10 % of my work? And I sort of work more or less 40 h a week. […] when I am really intense in making, I was working for 2 weeks non-stop making. When I got my drawing machine, I just demonstrated machine, non-stop for a period of days.”
	50 and over (1F)	F08: “depends on what I am actually making. I realized when I was preparing my display for the next week library exhibition, I haven’t got very many of the wider bangles and I thought I must make some more because I know that they are already sold really because people have shown their interest in them. But I only have limited amount of time. So I started yesterday to cut up some more of wires […] I tend to work over 2–3 weeks depends on what time I have in between doing the other things that I am doing.”
All the time (4)	Under 30 (1M)	M13: “it was definitely 2–3 days a week, when I was studying. I was always working on something. Whether it’s upcycling or based on something new. Now I am working, I have less time to actually work on projects, and also strangely with less money? I have to pay council tax and transport and bills now, they are expensive. So I don’t have money, which is frustrating. […] Maybe 1.5 h a day… maybe about 4.5 h a week?”
	30–49 (2Ms)	M02: “It’s kind of… I don’t know, all the time? So, I go to the Hackspace, at least one probably two nights a week. and probably one day in a weekend, every month. So, it’s something like that. So one day, maybe, two or three days a week for a certain amount of time.” M09: “you can count 80 % of every evening during the week. […] They will be probably 4 days a week. Sometimes, at least one of the two days of the weekends.”
	50 and over (1M)	M12: “4–5 days a week? 4–6 h a day. So maybe I say 30 h a week, something like that.”
Spread over a long time period (2)	Under 30 (1F)	F05: “not often a lot. They tend to be spread out through a very long period of time. It’s mostly a hobby. So, it’s kind of… I do want to make something, then I start looking out for materials I can use for, and I usually gather those over a few months, and then kind of do the work in fits and starts. If I’ve got a day for a weekend, I spend a day working on it. Or, spend a couple of hours in the evening, but it’s usually spread out… like not particularly organized… I am just bit like… carrying there. It’s pretty much always ongoing but not that frequent.”
	30–49	NA
	50 and over (1F)	F03: “i probably spend four full days actually taping and measuring and testing. If I just sat down to do it, it probably takes about a week. The dress, for example, a month, but it was because I do something and I sit back and think ‘what do i do next? Should I do this or that?’ i have to find another fabric. So that took me about six months. But it’s not every day. It’s interwoven into my life.”
Depends on the job situation (1)	Under 30	NA
	30–49 (1F)	F05: “it depends on how my work is going. If I have no contracts, then I have been here up to 5 days a week for probably… up to 9 h each day. If I do have work maybe once or twice a month for 5 to 7 h each. It’s, you know, unless you can be paid for, it’s hard to justify, what am I doing? Playing with like rubbish?”
	50 and over	NA
Once a week to once a year (5)	Under 30 (1F & 3Ms)	M06—once a week: “once a week? 2 h a day? It is relaxing.” F01—once a month: “usually one project every month? But at the moment, probably about three projects a week.” M11—once every three months: “I’d say at least one every three months. I would say that. Over the year, a couple of every other six months. Not massive amount but depends on what scale we are talking. They are perhaps bigger projects… but some are bits and bobs. You repurpose something and it might only be a small item like a screw or something like that. […] we’ve done things little things but we don’t really think about it.” M07—once a year: “looking at this list, it’s about one a year. These are the best kind of examples I am thinking of. One or two more, given that the first one was in 2007. It seems to be about one a year.”
	30–49	NA
	50 and over (1M)	M04—twice a year: “well, probably not that often. I mean I would think probably I do about 2 things this year, perhaps.”
With what materials, components or products
Wood and furniture (8)	Under 30 (2Fs & 2Ms)	F02: “pick up furniture in a car boot, even broken bits to make up new things like a coffee table that I showed you at the end of the pictures, it’s actually two chairs. […] just wood stuff. […] I think, I tend to use wood because it’s easily paintable.” F06: “I use mostly woods, so recycling old pallets and used plywood.” M03: “So when I did my jigsaw table I told you about. What it was that when we moved in, I’ve been meaning to get a coffee table for a while, and I was at the village fete, helping my parents out there they are having a barbeque every year and I had a big box to try to find interesting things, and there was a table, I brought it home and the space… the table was a bit big so I cut the top into four jigsaw pieces and added new lags, figured out how to make joints and I built four tables three of which are matched but one of which is slightly shorter so I am doing it again now. […] mostly wood work. […] Probably that’s the core of what I am doing. The table, workbench, basically woodworking projects. [… things about woodwork] M11: “and all sorts of bits of wood”
	30–49 (1F)	F05: “Sometimes wood.”
	50 and over (3Ms)	M04: “it’s mostly wood.” M10: “wood. Wooden pegs or matches. Sometimes bits of materials if I need to use it to cover things.” M12: “I normally use wood.”
Anything I come across (5)	Under 30 (1F & 2Ms)	F02: “I use anything I come across to make stuff.” M11: “and anything lying around really.” M13: “just anything in my hands really. I live near garages, so they have tires and stuff. And I’ve taken one of those and cut it down, and get some pipe pips, and screw them up, and I use them to put it on new shoes. That’s good. […]”
	30–49 (1F & 1M)	F04: “I did have a plan to make a dragon. It’s big like 5 to 10 foot long dragon. But I have not found a thing that will spark it to generation. I’ve got an umbrella, an old dead umbrella nobody can use it anymore, I’ve got an old hack’s wrenches to use for claws, things like that, but I haven’t got the one thing that will be the start but everything else will grow around. But I have all the stuff in my loft to be waiting for that time. When all these things I’ve picked up from the floor can come to flourish in a new life as a dragon.” M05: “all sorts of really. I sort of find myself looking at products thinking how I can make something out of it. So I use everything from bin bags, plastic bottles, state agency signs, train tickets, measuring tape, playing cards, ya, all sorts of different things.”
	50 and over	NA
Metal (5)	Under 30	NA
	30–49 (2Fs & 1M)	F04: “nuts and bolts, or bits of metal” F07: “metal and wires and stuff with copper, so anything that comes along” M09: “metal, plastics, fabrics, anything that I need to use.”
	50 and over (1F & 1M)	F08: “I use aluminium and upcycle some of previous art work.” M12: “I sometimes use metal and plastics and electronics.”
Electronics (4)	Under 30 (1M)	M11: “electronics mainly, I would say”
	30–49 (1F)	F04: “I use printed circuit board”
	50 and over (1F & 1M)	F08: “At the moment, I’ve been making jewellery for the upcoming exhibition and that is from recycled data cabling, so computer cabling and electric wiring I have a big store of that, which I acquire from the company who gave it to me about 2 years ago when I was working on my MA and I was wanting cabling to integrate it into my art.” M12: “I sometimes use metal and plastics and electronics. […] I always save my electronics bits because my background is electronics engineer.”
Fabric (3)	Under 30 (1F)	F02: “cushions out of t-shirts […] cushions and blankets and that kind of stuff.”
	30–49 (1F & 1M)	F05: “mainly fabric.” M09: “metal, plastics, fabrics, anything that I need to use.”
	50 and over (1F)	F03: “I work with fabric, different kind of fabric, I like a range of texture.”
Package (3)	Under 30 (2Ms)	M06: “I mostly use storage things […] just like the containers, boxes, shelves.” M07: “I use a lot of paper cardboard, glue, bamboo, stuff like that.”
	30–49	NA
	50 and over (1F)	F03: “I saved packaging and used that.”
Anything required for the project (3)	Under 30 (2Ms)	M03: “depends on the project, really.” M11: “and anything lying around really. It depends on what needs to be done.”
	30–49 (1M)	M09: “metal, plastics, fabrics, anything that I need to use. […] there’s really no limitation to materials.”
	50 and over	NA
Plastics, glass, watches and jewellery (3)	Under 30 (1M)	M08—waste from glass industry: “this one is cork, chemistry beaker and glass. This is like a waste from the glass industry because the bottom is not very even. They can’t sell it so these become waste. And they are from one of the biggest glass manufacturers in the world. They have like tonnes of bottles they can’t sell. They normally will melt and cast them again, but they nicely offered us, gave us some bottles with defects.”
	30–49 (1F)	F04—watches and jewellery: “I use watches, and bits of old jewellery and things like that.”
	50 and over (1M)	M12—plastics: “I sometimes use metal and plastics and electronics.”
How or where to get the materials, materials, components or products
Online shops and networks (7)	Under 30 (1F & 3Ms)	F02: “sometimes online, ebay or gumtree.com. pick up things from there… a lot of people… or freecycle. It’s another one. A lot of people who don’t want to sell it, just want to get rid of it, put it on freecycle.” M03: “so, most of the things I’ve done recently, parts came from freecycle, freegle,… freegle is… it used to be called freecycle which is much better name and is a sort of yahoo group. It’s an international loose group of organizations, so you join up for the local yahoo group and people post “I have such and such for free.” “I want such and such for free” what they want is usually hilarious. “I want a car!” “I want a computer!” ya, giving away things they don’t want anymore… that’s where I found the door for the workbench or at the fete… I don’t go there very often, but when I am helping my parents, I can find [something].” M06: “I bought i-Mac G4 for 10 lb from ebay. […] the piano was from freecycle for free.” M07: “I’ve got some stuff from freecycle.”
	30–49 (2Ms)	M02: “Second hand things from ebay as well sometimes.” M09: “usually I use internet. There’s a shop online.”
	50 and over (1M)	M12: “electronics, I normally get from ebay or from Farnell [Electronic components online shop].”
Anywhere everywhere (6)	Under 30 (2Fs & 1M)	F01: “just collecting things.” F06: “from all kinds of places. […] I look out for stuff that are on the street like lots of people put stuff outside the houses, for people to collect. So I’ve got a lot of stuff from there, like neighbours leaving things out and I am walking passed, and picking up things useful. I am looking at skips and those places where the buildings are renovated.” M13: “just like wherever someone has thrown away really. I’ve never really found a lot near home actually because it’s suburban area. But here in city, if you go to back alleys, then people just throw everything away.”
	30–49 (2Fs & 1M)	F04: “wherever I go, I am always keeping my eyes on the floor, because there’s all sort of things you find, people have just lost or disregarded. I found (showing things to the interviewer) that old nuts and bolts and that piece of plastic thing, just on the ground while I was walking two days ago. And I just pick things up and collect them.” F05: “either it’s stuff lying around maybe my housemate, she just bought and doesn’t want it anymore, or like… I don’t know… various places like… I don’t think I ever pull something out of the garbage can but I would if I saw something that was good enough…” M02: “Anywhere everywhere really.”
	50 and over	NA
Skips (6)	Under 30 (1F & 1M)	F06: “I am looking at skips” M13: “And there’s a dump out of the street. I found even a humidifier. I mean a good one. You know, big one with a refrigeration and heat pumps.”
	30–49 (3Ms)	M02: “I also used to work at the university and the things like… things been thrown away, what they consider it as waste from the project, I would go through the skips and find things there. And they are brilliant. Some stuff are amazing. So yes, the materials that are being… before moving out of the space, the materials are all over.” M05: “some of them are freely available for the… for example, I found state agency signs from the skips, sort of bins around the town, where just people discard them.” M09: “those are from the street, from the bins, from the skips […] I know it sounds weird, but I look inside the bins and especially when there is construction, I look inside the skips, trying to see if there is any material I can reuse. and sometimes those materials look useful and I just take them.”
	50 and over (1M)	M04: “I get them from skips usually. I quite often also collect things from people who get rid of them.”
Broken or unused items (4)	Under 30 (3Ms)	M06: “they are just rubbish. They are just free. I just use… my own consumables.” M07: “it’s probably just excess on stuff that I may have bought for another purpose.” M11: “something I have already.”
	30–49	NA
	50 and over (1M)	M04: “some of the things, the child swing is actually something we had it in our garden, but it had fallen apart. And I used the steel poles for that.”
Charity shops and other local shops (4)	Under 30 (1F & 1M)	F01—charity shops: “charity shops” M03—charity shops: “Charity shops occasionally.”
	30–49 (1F & 1M)	F05—local shops: “sometimes the offcut from the fabric shops. The cutoff edge of the curtain or something. And they say… you know they try to sell it, but nobody buys then they throw away. So before that happens I will buy it for a pound.” M05—local shops: “Other ones like… lamp shades out of plastic bottles and the local café, one of the waitresses very kindly stored them for me and gave me a big plastic bag full of them.”
	50 and over	NA
Given by people (3)	Under 30 (2Ms)	M07: “if someone has something that they are obviously not using and they don’t want, and I see some potential in it then I will ask them if they want to get rid of it.” M11: “other stuff… where I get originally is being donated by somebody”
	30–49	NA
	50 and over (1F)	F08: “some are given to me.”
Car boot sales (3)	Under 30 (2Fs)	F01: “car boot sales […] mainly, we go to car boot sales” F02: “sometimes in the car boot sales”
	30–49 (1M)	M02: “so, big source of my materials are carboot sales. […] But probably the carboot sales are the main supplier of second hand parts. Carboot sales and hackspace.”
	50 and over	NA
Building site (2)	Under 30 (1F & 1M)	F06: “those places where the buildings are renovated.” M03: “And… in future, not yet, I plan to be going around and sort of looking at building sites and asking “do you need that wooden pallets?” but I don’t really have a space to do that at the moment.”
	30–49	NA
	50 and over	NA
Hackspace, local factory, recycling centre (3)	Under 30 (1F & 1M)	F06—recycling centre: “There’s a place called ‘Brighton wood recycling centre’ that sells used woods for cheap. And I get any particular sizes of woods I need from there. And they are really good prices.” M08—local factory: “this one is cork, chemistry beaker and glass. This is like a waste from the glass industry because the bottom is not very even. They can’t sell it so these become waste. And they are from one of the biggest glass manufacturers in the world. They have like tonnes of bottles they can’t sell. They normally will melt and cast them again, but they nicely offered us, gave us some bottles with defects. […] we contacted the glass manufacturer. And the cork, we contacted the biggest cork manufacturer. We’ve got some of the parts in this space [shared, community workshop garage], so we’ve got basic parts here.”
	30– 49 (1M)	M02: “Hackspace, donations to hackspace. […] But probably the carboot sales are the main supplier of second hand parts. Carboot sales and hackspace.”
	50 and over	NA
Why to choose particular materials, materials, components or products
Project requirement (8)	Under 30 (1F & 3Ms)	F06: “I try to be quite strict about not just picking up stuff that I don’t need for the particular projects. Because everything needed for my projects is on the hallway of my flat, and my partner is annoyed by keeping stuff like that. So I picked up something recently from the neighbour’s house, and that was like old flooring, because I wanted to turn that into a workbench. And it’s like quite thin and quite strong.” M03: “What specific thing that I am looking after. The tables, I was looking for a coffee table and I found a coffee table and I thought I could do and it turned out to be big so I adapted it. The workbench I was waiting for three months to find the right bit of material on the freecycle.” M07: “it’s almost entirely functional. I don’t usually tend to think much about how things look. It’s more what fits the structure and it has the kind of mechanical properties. I guess the bamboo lamp, I chose it because it’s attractive material I like. But ultimately, it’s just something I had it in my hands and it fitted the purpose I wanted. With more effort I could make it better but, my materials choice is usually driven by functions. Most of the things I am making are functional items. They are not kind of artistic or decorative. It’s mostly something… I want to make something that does something.” M11: “It depends on what kind of thing it is. For example, we’ve got that old CRT monitor that we want to make it into our arcade machine. So we pretty much built the whole thing around that. So, we did have to get the material, wood and so on, to fabricate around it. So, that’s the kind of thing we are talking.”
	30–49 (1F & 1M)	F05: “it has to be applicable for the goal. So I look at the goal, what do I need?” M09: “not particularly. The criteria will be like depending on what I want to build. […] and depending on what the material will be used for. […] it’s purely case-by-case based.”
	50 and over (1F & 1M)	F08: “obviously a lot depends on what I have in stock and what I am aiming to do with the materials at any one time.” M12 “when you are choosing electronic components, you choose the components that are appropriate for the job. Each electronic component has got its own set of characteristics so if you are designing something you sort of are roaming through your box of bits and find the most appropriate things. You know things fit with any range values that will handle the amount of power, will handle voltage, things like that. […] it really comes down to when you are reusing the piece of wood. What the wood is going to be useful for, whether it requires the soft wood or hard wood. […] So, depending on what you are doing, whether it is a shelf that you want it to look nice, or whether a shelf in a garage you don’t care what it looks like, or a shelf in home, you obviously want it to look nice. If it’s the shelf in your workshop, you don’t care as long as it’s strong, and stands the weight of the tools you are putting on it. It really depends on what you are making, what it is going to be useful for, and whether you are using it more than once. Sometimes, you just make a jig to mill out a particular shape, so you just cut this jig out, clean it all up, wrought it out, use it and throw it away or put it on the fire?”
Potential value (5)	Under 30 (1F & 2Ms)	F01: “Or I sometimes see the potential in things that it might be in a bit stated or a bit of over repaired. (2:53) I can see the potential in it. And yeah, go for it.” M11: “sometimes… you might see something and that would give you an idea. So, perhaps something that is somewhat inspiring? That might be the criteria. […] Or something that might have function.” M13: “Value is other thing. I knew a refrigerator, I lifted it up to see if it’s heavy, because you can tell the type of unit, if it’s heavy, then there’s refrigerator, that kind of system costs you some hundred pounds to buy. That’s a lot of money. […] I see things, compressor, electronics, and I see if it’s repairable, is it something that I can pick up and repair? Is it something I can pick up and strip outside off? is it smashed into pieces yet? […] more often someone has already smashed it to take some parts in it. […] so I see, quality, value, and can I clean it? Is it recoverable? I guess. […]”
	30–49 (2Fs)	F05: “And I don’t take crap. Sometimes I will go to my way a little bit. I will use lower quality stuff than I normally would if I can fix the quality gap by working on it more?” F07: “I found these (metallic button-shape screws) from an old lamp, and I found them very beautiful, I keep them, and I will use them some way. So anything like that, this is how I see and mentally visualise use examples, then I take it and use it for that purpose.”
	50 and over	NA
Financial saving (4)	Under 30 (1F & 2Ms)	F01: “we go to car boot sales simply because we’re moving a house, we don’t have a lot of money for furniture, so we are just going to car boot sales and picking things up for a pound and just making things our own really.” M03: “Mostly I tend to find something cheap or free or second hand and build on to it with new materials.” M11: “it’s usually price-led. So, I am not going to, if I am upcycling, whole point is to make something, repurpose it, I don’t want to cost too much, so it would be price-led really.”
	30–49 (1M)	M09: “sometimes you’ve got something in your head, and you don’t want to go to the shops, or don’t have money for it, then you are looking into a bin for particular items. And that can be a piece of MDF, or old copper tubes, or whatever you want to build something with. It can be like an electronic component. You get an old computer and just extract a fan for a project, something like that.”
	50 and over	NA
High quality (4)	Under 30 (1F & 1M)	F02: “I prefer to use things that are solid wood. So I don’t tend to pick up anything that’s sort of veneered, so anything that’s made of cheap board or MDF (medium-density fibreboard) that’s got like pretended on the top, so I use it, I just prefer to use anything that’s solid which means I can sand it down and paper tape it? Properly. That’s it, really.” M13: “obviously I check the quality. […] I take it for quality. If the wood is rotten, mould, then I can’t clean up. I can dehumidify it.”
	30–49	NA
	50 and over (1F & 1M)	F03: “I had a very expensive dress which was given to me by a friend. It didn’t fit me. It was velvet. The fabric was nice but the design was bad. [..] the decisions are to do with colour, texture, or the person who wants that.” M04: “it has got to be clean, it’s got to be reasonable size, and in good condition.”
No criteria (4)	Under 30	NA
	30–49 (1F & 1M)	F04—collect things not knowing where to use: “I would never know when I am going to need it or what it might be useful for. So, I collect them with the intention of one day making something with them. But I know what I want to make when I know what I want to make. I will have all the bits then hopefully.” M02—start with materials, not the other way around: “I think more of my projects are defined by the materials I have rather than choosing materials for the projects. So solar power charger for example, I was given maybe 15 small solar panels and I needed to use them. I have them, and I don’t want them to go to the waste. So I was thinking what can I do, what I can make that I use these and also what other people would like. So I did it as a kits so that other people can make as well at the hackspace. So more of my process has got this thing: what can I make out of it rather than the other way round.”
	50 and over (1F & 1M)	F03—given to me: “I had a very expensive dress which was given to me by a friend.” M10—just trying to do varied range of things: “not really. I just try to do varied range of things from a rocking chair to a little bench, little garden benches, and tables. I do quite a range of things. […]”
Something I like (3)	Under 30 (1F & 1M)	F01: “It’s just something that I like. Because I am a creative person. I kind of see things I like.” M03: “mostly I kind of look at things on a… I guess I find things on an individual basis. I look at something… it’s what catches my eyes”
	30–49 (1F)	F07: “I just like pretty things. smallest things really.”
	50 and over	NA
Easy to handle (2)	Under 30 (1F & 1M)	F02: “I tend to use wood because it’s easily paintable. And I can make it into something completely different. Easy to saw, easy to stick, easy to turn into anything that I want really.” M06: “something that I can use without much tools. Something like cardboard or plastic because it’s so easy to cut and so easy to fix.”
	30–49	NA
	50 and over	NA
Miscellaneous (3)	Under 30	NA
	30–49	NA
	50 and over (2Fs & 1M)	F03—depends on the person who wants it: “the decisions are to do with colour, texture, or the person who wants that.” F08—depends on what I have: “obviously a lot depends on what I have in stock” F08—unrecyclable: “I guess I pick up the things which are generally not recyclable with the exception of aluminium and copper which clearly are.” M04—relatively unused: “for most purposes, it has to be relatively unused. What you find is, builders, they buy big piece of sheet of plywood and then they cut the big bit off and then the rest of it might be 2 feet wide, could be quite long, but they actually can’t use that because it’s too small to make any use out of. So they throw it to the skip. As long as it’s not covered with rubbish, then I would take it, if I can find it.”
What to do with end products
Use for home or myself (15)	Under 30 (3Fs & 5Ms)	F01: “we save them for in our house. So, at the moment, we kind of upcycle them we leave them in our garage and will go into our home.” F02: “a lot are in my house. So I usually pick up stuff that we tend to need” F06: “all pretty much functional stuff. Coz I made like furniture, and storage and stuff like that. So yes, kind of stuff that I can put it in my flat for particular purpose.” M01: “okay, so, the trellising is the… it goes on the fence […] And the patio, obviously is for dining in the summer.” M06: “they are not good enough to give to someone. They are primarily for my own use.” M07: “these are all for my own usage.” M11: “and our arcade machine for example that is sort of attraction for this space here. Sort of a piece of central piece. Equally, if you did that kind of thing at home, then just for fun, I suppose. Just entertainment, I think for other times. A friend of mine, he recently got an old stereo system like 1950s one, and took all the bits out of it and redid that with using Raspberry pi and now it’s streaming radio system. So, it’s that kind of thing. At the end, you might not necessarily have a purpose for it, but it looks good and it has sort of feature you would want to see in your home or vehicle or whatever.” M13: “everything I do is… because of attention deficit, I have a real trouble in finishing things, so I always felt like my stuff is not really good enough to give to someone else. […] I never really thought about giving it to someone really.”
	30–49 (2Fs & 2Ms)	F04: “the printed circuit board stuff, I kept some, two of the biggest projects for us.” F05: “most of my projects are for myself so far.” M02: “things have been done either for myself or for people I know.” M09: “I usually use them inside of my house, I use them inside of my workshop, I use them in my day to day life. If I don’t use it, then give it to someone or put it back into a bin? Or kick it on the side and try to use some of the parts of it.”
	50 and over (1F & 2Ms)	F03: “sometimes it’s practical stuff. I built a fence from the old fence wood materials from neighbours.” M04: “I use it myself, most often I use it myself.” M12: “sometimes I make pieces of furniture for myself. I have at home some lovely Parana pine and it’s very scarce these days. If you look at this wood, it’s big, thick, long and very heavy, and very strong. And I’ve been carrying this about for 20 years, because I won’t throw it away. It’s too good. And I am going to make some cabinets for my Hi-Fi for music and television and things like that. So, I hope to get into that project in the next year or two now. So I save this wood, very precious, it’s very nice wood. It was a bed that I made years ago because I wanted a bed to fit in a particular room, particular corner of the room. It didn’t have to be that high. It needed a big drawer in it. So I used huge planks of wood and that’s it. So I’ve got that and I keep all sorts of scrap wood. You know this wardrobe here, this tool box, it was a big wardrobe, it was all rickety and falling apart, so it was like either take it apart and re-glue it all or scrip it down or buy a nice new one. And I used all wood in it and made these tool boxes.”
Give to family or friends (8)	Under 30 (1F & 1M)	F02: “anything that I decide I don’t want then send it to family or friends and I do that a lot.” M13: “I do jobs for other people. I repair computers and laptops. I recycle stuff for that, like sound card.”
	30–49 (2Fs & 1M)	F04: “I’ve given some pieces to friends. We made a piece for a couple when they got married.” F05: “I would give something to somebody if I thought it is relevant for them.” M02: “things have been done either for myself or for people I know.”
	50 and over (2Fs & 1M)	F03: “prom dress was for my daughter.” F08: “the items that I have been making with the data cabling are bangles and bracelets and I am going to sell them for the first time. And I’ve shown, and given a couple to people as a birthday present.” M04: “I usually give it away.”
Sell to others (7)	Under 30 (1F & 2Ms)	F01: “So I made a lot of cushions with them and little bunting, and bags, handbags, little purses and stuff. And those things I actually do sell. Do quite a lot of craft shows around Christmas time. Christmas decoration and things. and I’ve also got a folksy account. Folksy is like a craft-based website where you can sell your own. It’s same as etsy. But it’s just based in the UK. And I sell all my craft bit on there as well.” M07: “I have been wondering about making things for the purpose of selling them because you know, a couple of times, people have seen the things I’ve made, and then they said, oh, you could sell these on Etsy or whatever. And really that’s just I haven’t put an effort to investigate how feasible it is.” M08: “at the beginning of the project, our aim was to start production here, but we faced some legal issues, like selling the products, because we can’t trust the parts, it’s like products go to the recycling centre, such as broken kettles, and broken toasters, and we disassembled them, we can’t trust them. And we can’t say where it comes from. So if we sell it to somebody, like the kettle, then we are the responsible for all the safety issues because we can’t say that these parts are from so and so manufacturers. This is a big problem for this project.”
	30–49 (2Fs)	F04: “I do sell my upcycled jewellery. […] I use etsy, and I go to certain craft fairs around about.” F05: “I do have an etsy shop. But I haven’t sold stuff there yet.”
	50 and over (1F & 1M)	F08: “the items that I have been making with the data cabling are bangles and bracelets and I am going to sell them for the first time.” M10: “I only sold the bowls at the moment. I am not selling the rocky chairs at the moment. If I can find a market for it in this place, I will try do it.”
For a faire, exhibition or performance (3)	Under 30 (2Ms)	M08: “we haven’t sold anything. We did many exhibitions with this kind of project but we didn’t sell them. And we decided to stop the project for our financial issues.” M11: “our arcade machine for example that is sort of attraction for this space here. Sort of a piece of central piece.”
	30–49	NA
	50 and over (1F)	F03: “Black box was for the maker faire in Newcastle. […] I did performance once, […] and I built a big projection set, and at the end of that making, […] it was the combination using old carpets that I saved and recycled some pieces for other things, […] perfection doesn’t happen.”
Just for fun (2)	Under 30 (2Ms)	M11: “and our arcade machine for example that is sort of attraction for this space here. Sort of a piece of central piece. Equally, if you did that kind of thing at home, then just for fun, I suppose. Just entertainment, I think for other times. A friend of mine, he recently got an old stereo system like 1950s one, and took all the bits out of it and redid that with using Raspberry pi and now it’s streaming radio system. So, it’s that kind of thing. At the end, you might not necessarily have a purpose for it, but it looks good and it has sort of feature you would want to see in your home or vehicle or whatever.” M13: “ya, I usually do things for sort of pleasure in doing it. […] I do it as a hobby, for fun, I do it as I like it. I mean, I did IT support, and I’ve always been fixing things and making things. And that was all about fixing things and problem solving. And that’s all about engineering, it’s a problem solving.”
	30–49	NA
	50 and over	NA
Part of degree project (1)	Under 30 (1M)	M01: “The raspberry pi project, that’s electronics project, umm, it’s a prototype for some running some computer software that I am trying to write as part of my degree.”
	30–49	NA
	50 and over	NA
When to upcycle
Anytime that suits me (11)	Under 30 (1F & 4Ms)	F06: “I work full time. So I do it at weekends. Generally during the summer. I don’t have much space to work in my flat, so I do it outside the garden, more like at the patio. So I don’t get a lot done during the winter really.” M03: “usually at the weekends I guess because I work full time. That really depends on what I am doing and when I am doing. It depends on what I doing at the time being.” M06: “if I feel like I have the chunk of time, a block of time, and there is no distractions, then I can dedicate my efforts into tinkering, into doing something. If I know that I have something other more important, then I am not even starting, because if I have a little time before I open the computer, before I open the browser, before I open the previous notes, it’s just taking too much time. So I know that I need to have an allocated chunk of time with no distraction. Only then I can start working. […] it’s on weekends.” M07: “whenever I have free time, really. So, historically, it’s mostly weekday evening because weekends are, well I have time to go and socialize. Weekday evening often I find something I do to keep myself entertained, I make things for the fun of making things as much as for what it is I end up with. It’s more productive than watching TV it seems.” M11: “just when I get spare time.”
	30–49 (2Fs & 2Ms)	F05: “it’s when I can just find around my work.” F07: “during week days.” M05: “I work when I am able. I am sort of juggling a family life and so forth.” M09: “I usually work in the evening. Mostly after work or weekends.”
	50 and over (2Ms)	M04: “any day that suits me really. Coz I am retired, so I can work during the week. Usually I am more busy with the family at weekends. So it’s the other way around for me. It’s usually weekdays when I am working on things. […] probably more in the afternoon.” M10: “when I can, coz I am working in the shop. So it totally depends on when I can get to do something. Probably about a couple of days a week to do it. In the evening after the work.”
All the time (3)	Under 30 (2Ms)	M03: “It’s something that I’ve always kind of been used to doing I guess, from my parents kind of told me to be using recycle as much as possible, and I kind of always have.” M13: “I am thinking about it every day.”
	30–49	NA
	50 and over (1F)	F03: “I realised that I’ve done it thorough all my life. So it is not specific thing I set time to do, it’s I need something, want something, have urge to make something, my first thing is… do I have anything here I can use around me? Building whatever it is. So, it’s kind of, I guess I do it all the time. Even when I am cooking, I take something that’s left over, and turn it into something else. It’s kind of interesting thing to think about. Some of reasons are economic, and some of them are just challenges that I make this happen, without having to go to store and buy things.”
When responding to a particular event (2)	Under 30	NA
	30–49	NA
	50 and over (2Fs)	F03: “One was in response to a particular event, by curiosity club team, so we’ve done something outside, and response to that was how can we make it to the maker faire. So that was the challenge. So that’s where we started internal dialogues and dialogues with other people to talk about what can I do for it. and then I made a box, the box was constructed out of plastic I saved from work, I just thought this would be useful, and plucked it, and it’s been sitting around for years, I don’t even know what it is, I thought it was packing materials. I put them together with a tape to make it look pretty.” F08: “it is a variety of time because I am working and with various people communications work and obviously I am gathering materials at any time from the people I am contact with and that can be through work, through business, or through being on seashore and finding drifting woods and like that foraging and actually doing the work itself it depends on what events are coming up such as exhibitions.”
When I am triggered, I feel like it, or there is need (5)	Under 30 (1M)	M03—when triggered by the wanted materials: “some cases it’s what I have been meaning to do for ages and I managed to get the materials […] I think it’s mostly finding the materials. It’s… I don’t often go out and buy new bits and pieces. But when I find something that I want to do something, “ohh, have that!” so, that has been the driver for the last a couple.”
	30–49 (1F & 2Ms)	F04—when I feel like it: “whenever I feel in the mood for it. It’s definitely hobby rather than anything else. So it’s just when I got time, and I feel like it. […] because it’s quite random when I do it. I don’t have any particular time that I spend on it.” M02—when I feel like it: “But it’s difficult because I have my jobs and also use the Hackspace based on my job. So, I am self-employed. So I don’t have anyone telling me exactly what to do. So, when I am interested in something, I will just do it. and it doesn’t matter; there’s no set time when I have to do these.” M03—when there is need: “Some cases, it’s need”
	50 and over (1M)	M12—when I feel like it: “I am retired, so I do it anytime. Sometimes 2-3 o’clock in the morning if there isn’t any loud work or noise involved with machines or things like that.”
Where to upcycle
At home (not specified) (7)	Under 30 (4Ms)	M06: “I have all the equipment. I am able to make all times. And I have a workspace. And everything is within my reach.” M07: “I’ve been making things since before Makespace existed. So mostly I just do it at home with kind of whatever tools I have. […] until the Makespace existed, it was my home.” M11: “either at home” M13: “it’s usually at home.”
	30–49 (1F & 1M)	F05: “for a long time, I used to do that at home, when I had a flat that I was sharing” M05: “at home”
	50 and over (1M)	M12: “inside my house.”
Hackspace or Makerspace (6)	Under 30 (4Ms)	M01: “Almost always, either in Hackspace, here, because of all the tools are here […] when… for the past about a year, so I probably come here maybe twice a month? Something like that? Not very often. I live about an hour’s drive from here so commute to come here so I am not here every day like a lot of people.” M03: “I do some stuff down in the Hackspace.” M07: “So, until the Makespace existed, it was my home. And it still is to an extent, I still do kind of simple stuff that won’t generate much mess at home. But when I am working on something more involved I tend to be here especially just because of the access to tools, the stuff like lathe and cutters, they are incredibly useful.” M11: “in Hackspace.”
	30–49 (1F)	F05: “So now, I use Hackspace, because now I have a room instead of a flat. So the less room I have, the more I work at the Hackspace.”
	50 and over (1M)	M12: “here at Hackspace.”
Bedroom, dining room, living room, office room or workshop room at home (5)	Under 30	NA
	30–49 (1F & 2Ms)	F04—living room: “my living room.” M03—office room: “my office when I do stuff indoors. And the office used to be a bedroom and I keep all my tools in the clothes cupboard because the shed is less secure.” M09—workshop room: “in my house. It’s inside of my house. I got a little room that can be used as a bedroom and I converted it into a workshop.”
	50 and over (1F & 1M)	F03—dining room: “Sometimes I do it in my dining room.” M10—bedroom: “I do have in my bedroom.”
Shed or garage (6)	Under 30 (2Ms)	M01: “or at home in my garage, coz it has got a work bench, so either that.” M03: “I have a little shed in the back garden.”
	30–49	NA
	50 and over (2Fs & 2Ms)	F03: “I have a shed. This shed itself is part of upcycling. I built the shed behind my house. There were loads of doors, old-fashioned sliding doors, and I bought them, my shed is made out of, big portion of it is made out of these doors. And I have sewing machine, table, and bed. I have equipment so that I can play muc and video or play videos or DVDs.” F08: “I do have a studio in the garden in my home. I store all my materials there.” M04: “I have a workshop because our house has a built-in garage, but we don’t keep the car in the garage, we just use it as a workshop.” M12: “in my garage”
Studio or workshop (outside home) (3)	Under 30 (1M)	M08: “yes. This is our workshop in London and we have another in Paris. My associate lives in Paris and I live in London. So, he comes here or I go to Paris or we work through Skype.”
	30–49 (1F & 1M)	F07: “yes, my sometimes workshop.” M05: “at my studio […] I really like it when I am doing it in my studio where I have my tools and sort of things.”
	50 and over	NA
Patio (2)	Under 30 (1F)	F06: “I don’t have much space to work in my flat, so I do it outside the garden, more like at the patio. So I don’t get a lot done during the winter really.”
	30–49	NA
	50 and over (1F)	F03: “Sometimes I do it in my patio, under sunlight, it’s bright and warm.”
With whom to upcycle
Just myself (17)	Under 30 (6Ms)	M01: “always by myself, coz it’s sort of… none of my family or friends are kind of interested in that kind of thing.” M03: “mostly, I’ve been doing things on my own. In terms of actually physically doing things, I am doing it on my own.” M06: “I am doing this primarily on my own. I wish I could have someone close to me who is sharing similar interest but it’s very difficult to find people with similar interest. Of course, I am on the London Hackspace mailing list and Cambridge Makespace mailing list. But these people are… they are busy, they have their own schedules, and it’s very difficult to coordinate and find a suitable date.” M07: “most of the actual making is by myself. And a number of the projects I have made have been inspired by stuff other people have done. And I got a lot of ideas from reading stuff I found on instructables and various blogs.” M11: “has been traditionally more by myself. And now I get involved in this Hackspace, I do a lot more with other people, groups of people, getting involved in doing things together.” M13: “it’s usually me. I’d love to work with someone who is more experienced in electronics. […] I’ve always been a hacker, I’ve always been putting things together. So I’ve always been looking on the websites or forums. Google you go when you have an idea or questions, electronics or programming or whatever it is.”
	30–49 (3Fs & 3Ms)	F04: “nobody else. Just me and him [husband] pretty much.” F05: “by myself. I try to involve people but it doesn’t usually work.” F07: “I work on my own.” M02: “Generally, I am probably most productive when I am on my own.” M05: “traditionally, on my own” M09: “yes, just by myself.”
	50 and over (2Fs & 3Ms)	F03: “I often do it myself.” F08: “it tends to be just me.” M04: “mostly by myself.” M10: “I do all by myself which I like. Nobody can interfere with me or tell me what to do.” M12: “if I am home, I work on my own, if I am here at Hackspace, I work with whoever else is around. It depends what the project is and how many people are required.”
Local experts (6)	Under 30 (2Ms)	M03: “There are a couple of things that I consulted with people about or ask questions about. But mostly I do, I work by myself. […] people at the Hackspace and people on the internet. Mostly.” M11: “has been traditionally more by myself. And now I get involved in this Hackspace, I do a lot more with other people, groups of people, getting involved in doing things together.”
	30–49 (2Ms)	M02: “Generally, I am probably most productive when I am on my own. But it’s… I learn a lot from other people, and I ask people for help on things, and people give me help. Sometimes I help other people, but I can’t give you one… generally I work on my own. But I use a lot of other people’s resources.” M05: “but the project done more recently I had my assistants. So I work with fabric artists for a couple of years to do sort of fabric projects, and also […] end of last year, I brought some assistants making a big Christmas structure. […] I get volunteers to help build things. It’s like passing on skills, getting people involved in making process, which I enjoy.”
	50 and over (1F & 1M)	F08: “Occasionally if I need to do something much more constructional which I don’t have the ability to do myself then I will seek out local artist or craft person to be in partnership with me. And something I’d like to do more of is enhance upcycling business.” M12: “if I am home, I work on my own, if I am here at Hackspace, I work with whoever else is around. It depends what the project is and how many people are required.”
A partner (3)	Under 30 (2Fs)	F01: “with my boyfriend.” F06: “my partner works on projects as well. We don’t do a project together but we both work on anything at the same time really.”
	30–49 (1F)	F04: “nobody else. Just me and him [husband] pretty much. […] if we are making one of the big PCB (Printed Circuit Board) project, and obviously I can show you the pictures, and send them on to you if you’d like. He is very good at spotting what will look right in different places on the panel, but it was my original idea and I have a lot of input into, I collect all the stuff, I get the ideas on what I want to make, he helps me make them and make them as nice as possible. I love it, it’s nice to do things together.”
	50 and over	NA
Other family members (2)	Under 30 (1M)	M03—father: “people at the Hackspace and people on the internet. Mostly. Occasionally my dad [that I am asking for consultation]. He has done a lot of things himself.”
	30–49	NA
	50 and over (1M)	M04—daughter: “Yes. Occasionally, I do things with my daughter. I’ve got one daughter who lives with us and other daughter who lives quite close by. So, I do that with them sometimes.”
Expert friends (2)	Under 30 (1M)	M08: “I initiated by myself but then we [me and my friend] worked together.”
	30–49	NA
	50 and over (1F)	F03: “if I hit something and I need something really precise and I have a good friend very good at wood working and she helps me to make a frame to mount 6 ipods. And we used old piece of bed, it was an old piece of oak. We spent a day, sanding.”
People online (2)	Under 30 (2Ms)	M03: “Me: what kind of people did you consult? P: people at the Hackspace and people on the internet. Mostly. Occasionally my dad. He has done a lot of things himself.” M07: “A couple of things I had, sort of active discussions with people who have more experience than me. Where there is any information that I was lacking, I would talk to people mostly online with whom knew what they are doing. But the majority of everything I’ve made, made my own.”
	30–49	NA
	50 and over	NA
Depends on the project (2)	Under 30	NA
	30–49 (1M)	M02: “totally depends on the project.”
	50 and over (1F)	F03: “It depends on what I am doing.”