The emerging landscape of urban upcycling : Identifying manifestations and a typology for urban upcycling
(2025) In Sustainable Production and Consumption 57. p.341-354- Abstract
Urban areas provide a promising context for upcycling due to the concentration of consumers and existence of bulky waste resources. Hence, upcycling initiatives emerge across European cities, but little is known about their manifestations. Building on interviews with twenty-four stakeholders from the urban upcycling ecosystem and three focus groups sessions, a morphological model was created with internal and external business model characteristics to analyse a database of 172 collected Dutch urban upcycling initiatives in the furniture and interior sector. The morphological analysis led to eleven urban upcycling manifestations with distinct business model characteristics that make up five generic categories and a landscape of urban... (More)
Urban areas provide a promising context for upcycling due to the concentration of consumers and existence of bulky waste resources. Hence, upcycling initiatives emerge across European cities, but little is known about their manifestations. Building on interviews with twenty-four stakeholders from the urban upcycling ecosystem and three focus groups sessions, a morphological model was created with internal and external business model characteristics to analyse a database of 172 collected Dutch urban upcycling initiatives in the furniture and interior sector. The morphological analysis led to eleven urban upcycling manifestations with distinct business model characteristics that make up five generic categories and a landscape of urban upcycling which facilitate future research into the topic. A research agenda to study quantitative implications, regional differences, collaborative experimentation and scaling strategies of urban upcycling is proposed. Practically, the typology may facilitate policy makers and practitioners to create, scale or accelerate urban upcycling initiatives.
(Less)
- author
- van Hees, Marco ; Oskam, Inge and Bocken, Nancy LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-07
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Circular business models, Circular cities, Furniture, Upcycling typology, Urban waste management
- in
- Sustainable Production and Consumption
- volume
- 57
- pages
- 14 pages
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105007300616
- ISSN
- 2352-5509
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.spc.2025.05.020
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- cea1f31a-b630-4f6e-b4bc-bcb80767315b
- date added to LUP
- 2026-01-12 11:27:29
- date last changed
- 2026-01-12 11:28:03
@article{cea1f31a-b630-4f6e-b4bc-bcb80767315b,
abstract = {{<p>Urban areas provide a promising context for upcycling due to the concentration of consumers and existence of bulky waste resources. Hence, upcycling initiatives emerge across European cities, but little is known about their manifestations. Building on interviews with twenty-four stakeholders from the urban upcycling ecosystem and three focus groups sessions, a morphological model was created with internal and external business model characteristics to analyse a database of 172 collected Dutch urban upcycling initiatives in the furniture and interior sector. The morphological analysis led to eleven urban upcycling manifestations with distinct business model characteristics that make up five generic categories and a landscape of urban upcycling which facilitate future research into the topic. A research agenda to study quantitative implications, regional differences, collaborative experimentation and scaling strategies of urban upcycling is proposed. Practically, the typology may facilitate policy makers and practitioners to create, scale or accelerate urban upcycling initiatives.</p>}},
author = {{van Hees, Marco and Oskam, Inge and Bocken, Nancy}},
issn = {{2352-5509}},
keywords = {{Circular business models; Circular cities; Furniture; Upcycling typology; Urban waste management}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{341--354}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Sustainable Production and Consumption}},
title = {{The emerging landscape of urban upcycling : Identifying manifestations and a typology for urban upcycling}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2025.05.020}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.spc.2025.05.020}},
volume = {{57}},
year = {{2025}},
}