Newlands the home of Upcycle, Center of creativity.

Upcycle’s Home Ground for Skills, Production, and Possibility

Newlands is where Upcycle lives and works. Located at our head office in Johannesburg, the Newlands community is not a standalone outreach initiative — it is the operational heart of Upcycle, where multiple production streams, training activities, and learning pathways intersect.

What began as an informal settlement has evolved into a resilient, skills-based community where discarded materials are transformed into valuable products, people learn through real work, and participation in the circular economy is practical, structured, and ongoing.

A Multi-Stream Working Community

Unlike most community projects, which focus on a single activity or product, Newlands operates as a multi-stream production and learning environment. This reflects its role as Upcycle’s HQ community, where different material flows, client projects, and training needs converge.

Activities in Newlands include:

This diversity allows Upcycle to respond flexibly to changing waste streams while creating meaningful, paid work opportunities across a range of skill sets.

Book Covering: Precision, Accountability, and Scale

corporate identity covered books
Debranded and covered books
notebooks covered with shwe shwe fabrics
Vibrant African feel of Shwe Shwe

Book covering is one of the most established production activities in Newlands. Surplus corporate books — often generated through rebrands, events, or outdated campaigns — are carefully debranded and re-covered by hand using donated or client-supplied fabrics.

This is detailed, precision work. Community members are trained to meet clear quality and consistency standards, ensuring:

Once completed, these books are purchased by Upcycle and sold through our physical retail store and online platforms. This model demonstrates how upcycling can function as a reliable, scalable production system, not just a creative exercise.

Glasswork as Both Training and Product Output

Avanced bottle cutting
candles made in glasses
Picture of glasses that have been made by cutting glass bottles in half
Glasses cut form Protea wine bottles

Glass upcycling in Newlands is both a training pathway and a commercial product stream. Community members are trained to safely cut, polish, and prepare reclaimed glass bottles — including well-known formats such as Savannah bottles — into finished products.

This work requires patience, technical accuracy, and attention to safety. Finished glass items are purchased by Upcycle upon completion and sold through Upcycle Creative, both in-store and online.

Glasswork reinforces a core Upcycle principle: the material leads the process. Skills are developed in response to real materials and real market demand, ensuring that training remains grounded in practical outcomes.

Learning Through Real Work

Training in Newlands is embedded within everyday production. Skills are developed through active participation in real orders, real deadlines, and real quality expectations.

Individuals are encouraged to specialise in tasks that suit their strengths — whether cutting, sewing, covering, finishing, polishing, or quality checking. This approach builds confidence, pride in workmanship, and dependable production capacity while ensuring that work remains achievable and sustainable.

Fair, Immediate Income for Community Makers

Community members in Newlands earn income from the products they make. Because individuals cannot afford to wait for products to sell, Upcycle purchases completed work upfront, paying community members immediately once tasks are completed to standard.

Upcycle then takes responsibility for retailing these products through its physical store and online platforms. This model:

It is a practical system designed around real-life constraints, not idealised assumptions.

Youth Exposure and Work-Readiness Placements

In addition to community-based production, Newlands regularly hosts young people placed through New Economy (previously Big Hearts Africa). These placements are typically 12-month contracts, with occasional 6-month placements, and are focused on work readiness, exposure, and skills development.

Newlands also hosts short-term volunteers, including school learners completing Grade 10 and 11 community service requirements.

During their time at Upcycle, young people are introduced to:

Youth work alongside the Newlands community on real tasks, gaining exposure to a functioning production environment rooted in sustainability and social impact.

Environmental Impact at Community Level

Every activity in Newlands diverts usable material from landfill. Fabric, paper, glass, and other discarded resources are kept in circulation and transformed into functional, desirable products.

Because this work happens within the community itself, environmental impact and social impact are inseparable. Waste reduction, skills development, and income generation happen together, demonstrating circular economy principles in practice.

Why Newlands Is Different

Newlands is unique within Upcycle’s ecosystem. As the head office community, it hosts multiple concurrent activity streams, integrates production with training and placements, and supports both community members and youth participants.

Other community projects typically focus on a single material or product stream. Newlands operates as a living laboratory — testing systems, refining processes, and informing how Upcycle works across all its initiatives.

Get Involved

You can support the Newlands community by:

Get in touch to leaContactsrn more about our work in Newlands.