Yuddha Maharaj

Upcycling clothing "is to take old, worn out or damaged clothing and transform it into something new" (Immago). It is the act of taking what is already existing and turning it into a brand new item, which extends the circularity of clothing.

The creative and innovative aspect of upcycling is the fact that upcycled clothing can look like anything and made from any garment. Another perk of upcycling is creating items out of previous garments, such as making a backpack out of old jeans, creating a tote bag from and old t-shirt, or using old socks as clothes to clean shoes (Good On You). The options are limitless and is what keeps garments and textiles in circularity for a longer period of time.

Within the sustainable fashion space, we typically hear about creating clothing using textiles that are sustainable, aka good for the planet and does not exhaust our natural resources, however sustainable fashion goes far beyond creating new garments with new materials. It is the idea of repurposing and reusing textiles already existing in the goal of reducing and limiting waste. It does not break down the material, rather mend and take a part and maintains its core piece when transforming it into another.

"Recycling is the sorting and processing of items in order to reuse materials in their current form to be made into a new product" (Good On You). To recycle clothing, it means to alter and break down the material to make into a new product. Unlike upcycling, recycling clothing is emission intensive as well as becomes complicated and challenging as not all materials are naturally recyclable, especially fast fashion clothing that are made from fossil-fuel products.

Recycling often uses chemicals to treat the materials and can be combined with other fabrics, however this is not efficient nor good for the environment (Immago). Although it is an option to reduce the amount of clothing heading into landfills, it becomes a question on whether or not clothing can be recycled and the fact that it creates environmental damage whilst in the process. 

We see a lot of examples of fashion brands coming out with items that are recycled polyester or recycled cotton, or recycling programs in general, but do we understand the gravity of what that means? For example, recycled polyester, or rPET, is clothing made from plastic, such as plastic bottles. Of course, it is great and commendable to see clothing made from already existing materials, as it diverts plastic from landfills and our ocean. It's better than continuing to pollute our planet, right? It is also not as carbon intensive of a process to create clothing from recycled polyester, as it is using already existing materials. What gets messy is what happens after the garment is made and a consumer purchases the item. Although the garment was made from recyclable polyester, the bottom line is that it is still made from plastic, which will inevitably produce microplastics when washing the item. In addition to that, what happens when the item has reached its lifespan and is no longer a wearable garment? Is that now recyclable? Unfortunately, no. Recycled polyester does not mean it can be recycled. In fact, not many clothing can be recycled in the first place. When clothing becomes recycled, it goes through the process of chemically breaking down and melting the material, and with the case of recycled polyester, it will have already lost its durability. The chances of it being even more recyclable is now far less (Brightly.Eco). It will inevitably go to trash/landfill and that is unfortunately the heavy and ugly truth!

Textile recycling programs are initiatives that take back clothing/textile waste in order to extend the lifespan of the item and close the loop on their production (Planet Home). A few clothing brands offer these programs as a means to reduce waste, but also as an incentive to make an exchange for a coupon or discount instead of simply donating (Planet Home). 

Levi's recycling program focuses on denim (no surprise of course). They partner with Cotton's Blue Jeans Go Green to accept old pairs of jeans and shred them to turn them into housing insulation (Planet Home). They also give you a 20% discount on any one item.

Similar to Levi's, Madewell also partners with Cotton's Blue Jeans Go Green to buy back denim from any brand and offers a $20 discount on a pair of new jeans (Planet Home).

H&M has a garment collection program since 2013, where shoppers can bring in textiles in any condition in exchange for 15% off their next in-store purchase. The textiles are then sent to a "facility" that separates them into certain categories of rewearing, reusing and recycling, and from there, they are either sold as secondhand, upcycled into other garments, or recycled (broken and melted down) into other products (Rivet).

All of these programs sound amazing, and I am sure they are and have been impactful in preventing textile waste going into our landfill. Here is where the issue begins. Many of these textile recycling programs want to lead you to believe after you have dropped off your clothes that are damaged or you no longer need/want, then they will solve your problem by either reusing, recycling or donating them elsewhere as 'secondhand goods'. But how do we know this is true and that they are actually giving our clothing a second chance AND that they are taking the responsibility in doing so?

The truth is, by doing research and learning from peers who have first-hand experience in this industry, many of these recycling programs do not recycle, but in fact, send it overseas to places like the Kantamanto Market in Accra, Ghana, which is the largest secondhand clothing market in West Africa (Eco-Age). Even programs such as Terracycle, a recycling program that specializes in recycling hard-to-recycle items, have been known to be problematic as there is no transparency as to where the textile waste goes. How do we know and trust these programs and sources if there is not reliable information? On top of that, you have to pay upward to $120 or so to give back your used items at these speciality textile recycling programs.

I recently learnt through an Instagram post (and here) from activist and author Aja Barber that majority of these textile waste end up going to a landfill in the Global South or specifically to places like the Kantamanto Market. Our damaged clothing end up in someone else's backyard as someone else's problem, and that is a problem we need to address and solve. It stems from a colonial way of thinking that one mans trash is another mans treasure, which is why textile recycling programs (and donations in general) are nothing more than a loophole that continues to feed consumerist behaviours in encouraging you to spend and buy more in exchange for your damaged, ripped, no-longer-in-use clothing, because if you don't want it, then someone else who is in need certainly will! Completely wrong and problematic. No one wants our damaged goods as much as we are led to believe it's better than nothing. In trying to reduce our waste in our own environment, these companies and programs are not solving the issue, rather taking one less stress and guilt trip off of us so we can feel great about ourselves, and in return, increasing someone else's waste where they can experience the burden of our waste, overconsumption, overproduction and frankly, cheaply and horribly made clothing.

As Aja said herself and with intent to make our waste our problem, bin in. If a piece of clothing is no longer in use to be worn and cannot be upcycled, throw it in the trash. That may come with confusion and resistance as so many of us in the sustainable and ethical fashion space are fighting and advocating for a more sustainable, clean and wasteless fashion system, however what we fail to realize is that we cannot solve our own problems by displacing it elsewhere. Nothing will change here and no one will benefit from that. By putting our textile waste and useless clothing in the trash, this will inevitably cause a problem for our recycling processing systems and will increase our environmental waste. And when our own systems finally see the damage and problems arising from our own waste, then and only then will we see a massive change and responsibility taken to combat and reduce our clothing production and manufacturing. We are so used to having someone else in a different part of the world handle our own messes, but that is the problem we need to fix and by proving our systems in addressing our messes, we in turn confront and resist the colonialist and capitalist principles our fashion (and other industries) systems are built on. 

I will add, in addition to having our systems in place take responsibility and address these concerns, we as consumers will also benefit from simply buying less. The less we buy, the less problems we face with what we choose to do with our clothing. 

I will end this conversation with a quote from Aja Barber herself. "You want the solution so you never have to acknowledge whether or not you were part of the problem" (Aja Barber).