How is upcycling sustainable?
Wow! Where to start?
Let's outline a list:
- Diverts waste from landfills
- Extends lifecycles of garments
- Ceases demand for creating new raw materials (i.e. trims, fabrics)
- Less transportation of goods.
- Little resources to renew old garments
There's more but let's keep this brief and what's important.
DIVERTS WASTE FROM LANDFILLS:
Upcycling sources from people's donations or waste. If upcycling did not occur, we wouldn't have vintage/secondhand stores. So think of all of thrift, vintage, secondhand stores out there and put that in one gigantic landfill. All of that could be in the ground somewhere not likely in your backyard but somebody else's. Sounds gross, huh?
EXTENDS THE LIFECYCLE OF GARMENTS:
Let's think this through. Someone has a t-shirt in their closet, they grow tired of it, donate it & it doesn't get bought... it'll has two directions it can go in:
- Landfill
- Upcycling company
Through an upcycling brand or company (like Lamero) it gets another opportunity to go through another lifecycle. Where as the landfill is where all things go to R.I.P.
CEASES DEMAND FOR CREATING NEW RAW MATERIALS:
THIS IS HUGE. If we bought everything upcycled, there would literally be no need to make new. Think about that! Gigantic companies would literally have no reason to make new clothes because everyone's buying secondhand. There would be no reason to make fabric, new packaging, new trims, nothing!!
LESS TRANSPORTATION OF GOODS:
In creating new garments you have to consider the transportation of everything. In order, that includes:
- Fiber to make fabric
- Raw material to make trims (zippers, buttons, labels, packaging)
- Fabric to cutting room.
- Trims to sewing facility.
- Cut fabric bundles to sewing facility.
- Garments packed and sent to port.
- Boat from country to country.
- Received port to distribution center.
- Distribution center to accounts.
You don't have any of these steps for upcycling! It is literally... find it, clean it, ship it. That's it. Literally.
LITTLE RESOURCES TO RENEW OLD GARMENTS:
At Lamero, we take things with holes & stains because they deserved to be saved too - a small caveat. That said, we have to figure out how to fix it and with any type of fixing requires resources. That can be dyeing it, treating it, sewing it, patching it, etc. This is such a granular level of energy & resources in comparison to large manufacturing.
The added bonus to upcycling is individuality. Wearing something upcycled is very personal. It's yours and likely no one else will have it. At Lamero, we offer entirely one-of-a-kind, truly unique garments because we want to have that personal connection with our customers & promote sustainability within the fashion industry.