The Truth About Upcycling
The fashion industry is already notorious for its massive waste problem.It has been estimated that 73% of the clothes that we wear are burned or buried in landfill sites, 12% is collected for recycling and only 1% is upcycled. Shockingly, fashion uses more energy than aviation and shipping combined and one-tenth of all water designed for industrial purposes. Consumers are becoming aware of this environmental damage and are calling for change. We all know that fashion needs fundamental redesigning to succeed long term.
The "Buy less" approach has been dominating the headlines for some time now. If you focus on quality and buy fewer clothes you will help to preserve the environment. It is a great alternative for the planet but not for the economy. If you think about it, the manufacturing industry provides jobs to millions of people around the world. There are whole families out there whose livelihood depends on the manufacturing industry. So, can we maintain economic growth without being too destructive of the planet? Of course we can - through upcycling! :-)
Upcycling is currently one of the best alternatives to fast fashion. It preserves and reuses fabrics that otherwise would have been thrown away. Clothes can be upcycled in 2 ways: from leftover fabric pieces or whole garments such as dresses, tops or trousers. Upcycling requires no external resources to make for example creating a single cotton T-shirt requires over 2,649 litres of water, whereas using an old cotton T-shirt requires almost no water. Upcycling conserves the environment, no extra materials need to be produced and it reduces the energy used in waste management. If you think about it, upcycling brings new life to old clothes that would have ended their lives in the landfill.
Upcycling also means uniqueness - how many T-shirts are you able to make from 1 dress? Not many, which means that garments which have been upcycled are one of a kind.
So what's the ugly truth? Throwing clothes away is also throwing away the fabrics and resources that were used to make them!
We at AMPOUR design and create gorgeous dresses and tops from upcycled silk sari. To find out more about us click here.