recycle vs upcycle

recycle and upcycle both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
recycle	No	No	Yes	No
upcycle	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, upcycle is a hyponym of recycle; that is, upcycle is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than recycle:

recycle: use again after processing
upcycle: To transform an old product into a newer and more expensive form with a different use

Other hyponyms of recycle include rehash, reclaim, recover.

recycle (verb)	upcycle (verb)
use again after processing	To transform an old product into a newer and more expensive form with a different use
cause to repeat a cycle