By: Ana Bueno, Environmental Reporter at Univision

Full article and video in Spanish here.

“Upcycling is a way to express yourself”: this is how you can help the planet while being fashionable

The fashion industry annually consumes 21 trillion gallons of water and this generates 203 trillion wastes of this liquid. Our reporter Ana Bueno explains what can be a good solution if you want to help the planet and stay in fashion.

Houston Texas. – The fashion industry annually consumes 21 trillion gallons of water and this generates 203 trillion wastes of this liquid.

These are huge numbers. For this reason, we must do everything possible to extend the useful life of our garments and consume sustainable fashion.

The Consumer Trends 2022 report indicates that if we continue to consume, the way we do, by 2030 the second-hand market will have doubled that of fast fashion.

These data show the problem of excess production that exists. That is why, today, it is so important to prolong the life cycle of our garments and, if we are already tired of them, we can bet on upcycling.

How does upcycling help with all of this?

In upcycling, waste becomes raw material for new creations.

“Clients come for alterations in their clothing. And many are their grandparents’ and they want to keep it. Other clients come with very old jackets or with many holes and I say to them: ‘why do you want to keep it? With what you pay for you can buy a new one from my work,'” says Thuvan (Van) Luu, a clothing manufacturer. “They tell me no, because they want to keep the memory.”

Upcycled fashion

After Hannah Le, creator of RE.STATEMENT discovered that 80% of second-hand clothes are discarded due to lack of space in stores, she wanted to offer a space for upcycled fashions with her website.

With this, he seeks to offer the planet a more sustainable way of dressing: “More than 17,000 tons of clothing are thrown away by people each year ,” says Hannah.

Discarded clothing can be as toxic as tires. And not only do people discard clothes from their closet on a daily basis, there is also a lot of textile waste during the production process.

“All of this happens when the factories have a new season and they no longer know what to do with the old garments, so they are thrown away, and this is very bad for the planet ,” explains Alejandro Silguero, a local upcycling designer.

“For me upcycling is a way to express yourself and own things and be more sustainable and not just keep buying things from stores,” says Gin Martini, a local upcycling designer. “So it’s creating something that will last a long time.”