Keep textiles out of landfills
Reduce carbon emissions
Textiles and deforestation
Enjoy the Limits
Upcycling and redesign is pure pleasure and an excellent way for your favourite clothes to last even longer.
Changing to a sustainable production and consumption of textile goods is a necessity as all phases of textile production and post-consumption phase have a major impact on the environment, climate and global public health.
Upcycling is perfect in terms of sustainability: if you double the
lifetime of a garment you reduce it´s carbon footprint by 50%!
Keep textiles out of landfills
More than two thirds of all textiles worldwide end up in landfills. This might have major negative consequences on both public health and the environment as microplastics and toxins from textiles leake to the groundwater, are ingested by wildlife including fish and shellfish and eventually end up in the human food chain.
The increasing amount of textile waste has a negative impact on public health and the environment through its impact on biodiversity, water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. The increasing number of landfills destroys habitats and has a negative impact on the living environment.
Reduce carbon emissions
Up to 80% of the total environmental impact of textiles arises in the production phase. Upcycling can reduce the envoronmental impact as we lessen the need of new, virgin production. We also reduce the negative impact created by the transport of goods.
We can help the nature store more carbon dioxide. When we upcycle textiles and thereby reduce new, virgin production, we can replant forests that had been lost in deforestation and our need for textile landfills decrease. More trees and increased amout of forest-area contributes to storing carbon dioxide.
When the amount of virgin textile production decrease, it will increase the volume of lakes and watercourses as we reduce the irrigation of textile plants. Increased volume of lakes and watercourses contribute in the long run to increased storage of carbon dioxide.
Textiles and deforestation
Deforestation is a public health problem affecting the textile industry through the increasing amount of textile landfills and use of trees to produce cellulose fibers such as viscose. When we upcycle textiles and thereby reduce new, virgin production, we can replant forests that had been lost in deforestation and our need for textile landfills decrease. More trees and increased amout of forest-area contributes to storing carbon dioxide.
Deforestation plays a fundamental role in global warming and also contributes to the spread of zoonotic diseases as wild animals loose their habitats. The number of cases of infectious diseases has increased in recent years and this has a lot to do with increased proximity between wild animals and humans due to deforestation.
Enjoy the Limits
During the anthropocene we have got used to "Converting resources into waste". With textile upcycling, the opposite comes true; "Converting waste into resources". Textile upcycling and redesign gives us new inspiration and increase our ability to find new ways to create.
Through textile upcycling, we can choose to change the way we see old clothes and textiles, we can decide to see it as material that we can refine and make even better. Our once loved clothes and textiles can get a new life, transformed into something even better.
It is not at good idea to see nature as an opponent that we must conquer, tame and defeat. Instead we have the possibility to see boundaries and limits as something that gives us abundance and new opportunities.
Would you like to know more about the relationship between
textiles, the environment and health?
Please have a look at the master thesis I have written on the subject of the relationship between textiles, the environment and health. You can find it here...
The abstract of the thesis is written in english and the rest of the text is in swedish. With a little help of google translate you will be able to read it in any language you prefer...
Social sustainability is a very important part of the thesis as the problem with social injustice is huge in the textile industry. The strive for tolerable working conditions for the textile workers is a very important part for me, both as a designer and as a public health worker.
When you upcycle you help ease the change for a sustainable consumption of clothes and textiles.
Changing to a sustainable production and consumption of textile goods is a necessity as all phases of textile production and post-consumption phase have a major impact on the environment, climate and global public health.