2022 Study Names Newport Wales’ ‘Upcycling’ Capital

Sustainable e-tailer Bower Collective’s latest study finds the UK’s top places to upcycle and transform homewares.

An estimated 22 million pieces of furniture end up in landfill every year. Furniture-flipping not only prevents more waste from piling up in landfills, but can provide a secondary source of income to many Brits. Over the last three years, searches for ‘up-cycling’ have almost doubled, and ‘up-cycling’ has been hash-tagged more than 3.9 million times on Instagram.

Setting out to discover more, Bower Collective’s upcycling study analyses per capita the number of furniture repair and upholstery shops, home improvement and DIY stores, antique shops and local second-hand furniture listings to find the UK’s top cities for upcycling.

Considering all factors, the study found that Newport is the ‘upcycle’ capital of Wales, and the 6th best in the country overall. Newport also has the 8th most DIY stores and the 9th most Antique shops per capita in the UK. Wrexham scored particularly well for its number of second-hand furniture items for sale, considering its size, placing 9th in the UK.

The data for the Welsh cities can be found below:

The study also examined the search volumes of each city for relevant terms like ‘upcycling’, ‘diy furniture’, ‘ikea hacks’’ and ‘upcycling furniture’’. Overall, Swansea has seen the biggest three year rise in searches for relevant terms, and the 2nd most in the UK — with searches for ‘upcycling furniture’ up by 410% alone.

In the study as a whole, Bath came top of the list, boasting the most furniture and upholstery shops per capita and the second most antique shops. Hereford, in 3rd position, also came 3rd for the number of DIY shops and antique shops per capita.

The most limited UK destinations to upcycle are Leicester, Luton and Cardiff, which came bottom of the study.

When it comes to category leaders, Bath, Norwich and Edinburgh have the most listed furniture repair and upholstery shops per capita. DIY whizzes should move to Carlisle, Lisburn and Hereford which have the most home improvement shops per capita. Carlisle, Bath and Hereford have the most antique shops per capita whilst Warrington, Woking and Blyth have the most second-hand furniture listings per capita.

Besides England, the study also found the winners in Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. Glasgow is the ‘furniture flipping’ capital of Scotland and ranks 15th in the study overall. Glasgow also has the 9th most furniture repair and upholstery shops per capita. Newport is the best Welsh spot to upcycle and came 6th in the study overall, with the 8th most DIY stores and the 9th most Antique shops per capita. Derry in Northern Ireland is the best place to buy upcycle on the Emerald Isle, and when considering its smaller size, Derry came 11th overall in the study, and boasts the 4th most DIY stores and the 5th most antique shops per capita.

The study was also supplemented with research into the increase in demand for upcycling in the UK. The data found that search terms around upcycling have seen the highest three year increase in Telford, where searches boomed by 500%. 

Swansea are also getting stuck in, with an increase of 410% since 2018, followed by Dundee with an increase of 300%.

For full details on the UK’s top locations to up-cycle, please feel free to visit Bower Collective’s interactive tool HERE or read more in the attached press release.