With China becoming the “Factory of the World”, the manufacturing enterprises in China are producing numerous industrial left-overs every day, which have become one of the biggest sources for environmental pollution, and recycling them consumes more energy. 

Unlike recycling, upcycling involves using something in a new way without doing anything to reprocess the material it is 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 could not be dealt with by conventional recycling methods.

UK is in the leading position in the world on industrial design, and this is also reflected in its higher education. In China, the education on industry design has been attached greater importance in recent years as it is regarded as one of the most important areas under creative industry. With interests and needs for collaboration shown from universities both in UK and China, we initiated this project with local partners, which include government, universities and business.  

For any queries on the project, please contact Zhang Jing at zhang.jing@britishcouncil.org.cn.