[Péter Mezei and Heidi Härkönen] Abstract: Exhaustion is a fundamental doctrine of copyright law, allowing for the resale of lawfully acquired copies of protected subject matter without prior authorization and payment to the rightholder. Following the debates on parallel importation, freedom of movement of goods, property rights v. copyright, and, most recently, resale of digital files, it is time to assess the relevance of the doctrine for a sustainable economy. More precisely, this paper addresses whether upcycling (transformative redistribution of materials based on the use of pieces/copies of, inter alia, works of authorship) fits into the doctrine of exhaustion.