The Process of Upcycling

Upcycling (unlike recycling) is the practice of taking something that is disposable and transforming it into something of greater use and value.”

What if every piece of clothing you bought was specifically designed so it could be taken apart and reused when you were finished with it?

We throw a staggering amount of stuff into landfill. Even if you look just at the UK and just at clothing and textiles…. we throw 1.8 million tonnes away every year. That's the weight of over 2 billion pints of beer!

You could just say that that’s a shame. But ‘upcycling’ starts from the idea that it’s a waste. That we’re wasting 1.8 million tonnes worth of valuable resources just because we don’t know what to do with it. (Would you waste 2 billion pints of beer??)

Over the last decade, some pioneering individuals and companies have started to look for ways to reinvent their design processes so they waste less.

At Worn Again, we want to help any company that currently uses a lot of fabric (often that means uniforms, but, for us, it could just as easily mean hot air balloons….). We focus on finding simple ways to cut down on waste by re-inventing textiles that are destined for the scrap heap. 

So how do you work with existing manufacturers and distribution systems in a way that doesn’t create unnecessary waste?

UK clothing and corporate uniforms are mainly produced overseas. They are then shipped to the UK for distribution and use. After a period of 18-24 months (for corporate uniforms), these items have reached the end of life they were originally designed for. Some are torn up for rags, some are given to charity, some are recycled. Most end up in landfill.

We've been building on our experience of ‘upcycling’ all kinds of materials for our Worn Again products, working with more and more large companies. We look at what happens to their waste textile now, what could be saved and how it might be reused within the company.