Apparel August 2019 Apparel August 2019 issue | Page 94

GOING GREEN
UPCYCLING IS THE PRACTICE OF
USING DISCARDED OR WASTE
MATERIALS TO MANUFACTURE
PRODUCTS OF HIGHER QUALITY.
per cent. Developed nations in Europe, Central
Asia, and North America now contribute a total
of only 4.6 per cent due to their advanced waste
management systems.
Despite the Western rollback of single-use
disposable plastic in recent years, the cumulative
impact of hazardous plastic waste remains very
much present in the world’s oceans and lands.
As a result, many developing nations have
taken bold steps to do their part in mitigating
this situation. Over the last few years, we have
witnessed a rising revolution against the use of
plastics. Nations such as Australia, India, China,
Italy, Bangladesh, South Africa, Kenya, and many
others have taken a firm stand against common,
non-biodegradable plastics in the form of bags,
straws, and other disposable items. But many
of these reforms have come at the tail end of a
long era of plastic use that has already created
significant environmental challenges.
UPCYCLING PLASTIC IN APPAREL
This is where the concept of ‘upcycling’ is proving
to be an innovative method to not only rein in
this waste but also develop it into productive
material goods. Upcycling is the practice of using
discarded or waste materials to manufacture
products of higher quality or at least, perceived
higher quality than their sourced materials. In
apparel, this means a significant benefit as the
usage of upcycled materials leads to reduced
textile waste. One of the most successful
implementations of this practice has been the use
of plastic bottles to create yarn material that can
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August 2019
further be used to produce high-quality apparel. A
recent and local example of this is Lakmé Fashion
Week Summer Resort 2018, during which over
25,000 PET bottles were converted into a fabric
called R|Elan™ GreenGold, which was used in
the making of T-shirts designed by Anita Dongre
for World Environment Day.
Commercially, this approach has already found
some success, with businesses starting entire
apparel lines with this manufacturing approach.
Major examples include Stockholm-based brand,
Gant, which upcycled ocean plastics to craft a
collection of shirts. Sportswear brands such as
Nike and Adidas have also released product lines
based on this trend. Nike claims to have upcycled
more than two billion plastic bottles since 2010
across many product lines, while Adidas has
partnered with the environmental organisation,
Parley for the Oceans, to manufacture a shoe
collection—called Adidas Parley—that uses yarn
made from upcycled plastic waste found along
beaches and coastlines. A similar approach is
also being used by Indian performance wear
brand, Alcis Sports, to produce sports T-shirts
since 2016, while Bengaluru-based brand,
The Summer House, is upcycling discarded
fishing nets to produce a fibre called Econyl® to
manufacture swimwear.