Upcycle your t-shirt

Upcycling is rescuing a discarded item and transforming it into another one of equal or better value.

Isn’t this recycling? Apparently not – recycling, for example plastic bottles, changes the integrity of the materials while preparing to form another new product - like carpets or jackets. This process takes many more natural resources to accomplish than upcycling.

I learned about upcycling from an article from the Freshwater Trust magazine, Freshwater*, entitled; Want to Conserve Water? You only have to look as far as your closet.   The article was written by Scott Hamlin who owns a company called Looptworks. Looptworks makes clothing and other products from pre-consumer waste from the textile industry. 

Pre-consumer waste is excess materials generated during the manufacture of goods. In the textile industry, more than 30% materials created ends up on the floor.  Looptworks gathers these cutting room scraps destined for the landfill and makes them into t-shirts, dresses, skirts, pants and even laptop sleeves.  The laptop sleeves, fashioned from excess wet-suit material, were featured in Oprah magazine. Looptworks sells their products on-line, but can be found in local stores including the Sport Haus in Poulsbo. 

Upcycling not only keeps perfectly good materials out of the landfills, it saves water. According to the Water Footprint Network, it takes up to 715 gallons to create one organic cotton T-shirt.  Consistent yields of cotton rely on irrigation. So, buying upcycled goods means protecting our aquifers and other water sources. 

*Freshwater (vol. 3, Issue 2)