Georgia Macaskie – Trend - Word Count: 1512

How rubbish are you?

In recent years there has been an outburst of up-cycling and recycling. It is now quite the trend as artists, designers, celebrities and big companies are catching up with what the world needs. We are coming out of one piece of history’s wildly indulgent phase fuelled by credit and an abundance of affordability. This is a slow recovery process, and gradually we will get clever at using and improving what we have with the cutting edge designers at the forefront. Up-cycling is a simple idea. It is a revolutionary fringe benefit based on the fact it will succeed. If we keep on as we are, using the earth’s natural resources, we will eventually exhaust them. Ever since the industrial revolution the global demand for raw materials and power have grown at a rapid rate. An observer says that humankind “has consumed more aluminium, copper, iron and steel, phosphate, rock, diamonds, sulphur, coal, oil, natural gas, and even sand and gravel over the past century than over all the earlier centuries put together.” (Tilton 2001,p.I.1) This is shocking and indeed scary as there is more evidence of growth rather than reduction. We live in a time where the human population has been allowed and encouraged to over-consume to the point where we are in big danger of a massive crisis if we carry on the way we are. The recession must surely be the reality of all of this? Is that not enough evidence for us to mend our ways? An article states, “Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption. The measure of social status, of social acceptance, of prestige, is now to be found in our consumptive patterns. The very meaning and significance of our lives today expressed in consumptive terms. The greater the pressures upon the individual to conform to safe and accepted social standards, the more does he tend to express his aspirations and his individuality in terms of what he wears, drives, eats, his home, his car, his pattern of food serving, his hobbies.” (Timeline To The Future, 2012) With the influence of certain individuals who have taken it upon themselves to set the trend for change and to raise global awareness on saving our planet, whether it be an exhibited piece of art, a designer’s collection or brands re-identifying themselves through up-cycling, we are slowly finding new ways to use what we have and create new resources. Will the rest of the world catch on and allow it to become part of our culture? Up-cycling can be seen as part of the ‘wider cradle-to-cradle concept’. It is an ecological break-through, mother of all eco-cleverness as products will no longer end up as waste but mirroring nature and inevitably entering back into the circle of life. In recent years it does show there has definitely been a higher demand of eco-friendly clothing and products due to High street stores, product designers and fashion designers adjusting to the new way of life. Examples of affordable eco-friendly brands are: American Apparel and Levi Strauss. Other designers who create sustainable and

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stylish clothing who encourage eco-friendly and ethical consumerism are: Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood, Christopher Raeburn and Martin Margiela. Vivienne Westwood is a climate change campaigner. She started the Ethical Fashion Africa Project, which began early 2010; all her designs and collections are handmade in Nairobi from recycled materials. The project is fantastic as it provides jobs for some of Africa’s most poverty-stricken women. In Vivienne Westwood’s own words, “It’s quite incredible to think we might save the world through fashion.” (The telegraph.co.uk, 2011) Martin Margiela is also another fantastic designer who produces up-cycled garments. They are all made from second-hand clothes combined in a new way. He is also known for using unusual materials, for example plastic. The whole point of up-cycling is to upgrade the used material and to make it look more desirable. Martin definitely achieves this in his designs. Urban Outfitters is another prime example of a brand that is identified with up-cycling. All of their visual merchandising represents up-cycling creations. Examples of this can been seen in any of their stores. We are constantly reminded in the media that our planet is fragile and we should be a lot more mindful of what we throw away into landfill sites. One person can make an enormous difference even just starting with organising household rubbish and thinking about what can be recycled, up-cycled or thrown away. Even reducing the amount one consumes. We, the people of the new millennium are from a generation that loves to shop, but is everything we buy necessary? The main problem is product bargains. People are replacing quality with quantity, such as poorly made products and clothes from stores like Asda and Primark, which allow them to be easily discarded. A way that can help save our planet is by up-cycling and investing into long lasting products. Shopping ethically could also make a huge difference. If we want to change this world we need to change what we buy and until then the environment will continue to suffer. Up-cycling is not just a solution to a problem but a new way of thinking. Already people are thinking of new ideas, for example, making driftwood into furniture and lighting fixtures, old tapes and even keyboards into lights, old cases into shelves and books into desks. If you stop to look around someone else’s rubbish could very easily become your treasure. Waste really is one of the world’s biggest problems at the moment. Even companies such as Coca-Cola have turned green in an effort to help spread recycling awareness. They have been running a ‘swap shop’ across the nation at all the major events such as festivals. These ‘swap shops’ include hands-on help, relaxing recycled gardens and a place for festival goers to swap their empty plastic bottles for festival essentials. Festivals are the perfect place to target unwanted waste. After a long weekend at Glastonbury Festival more than 1000 tons of rubbish is habitually left to clean up. An insider says, “As long as Asda sells tents for £10 this is

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going to be a problem” and. “It comes with the assumption of disposability that runs though our whole culture.” (White book.co.uk, 2011) The UK alone produces 400 million tons of waste every year. Wikipedia states that, ‘For every ton of household rubbish, commercial, industrial and construction business produce a further six.’ (Wikipedia) Disposal of waste by burial in landfill sites needs to come to an end. These landfills and horrible heaps of rubbish have become a permanent part of our lives. There has to be other forms of how we get rid of our trash. New ways of thinking for the future have become more popular over the last few years as the concerns for our planet increase. People are thinking of new methods of resources, such as wind turbines and hydro power, more recently electric cars, solar products, wind-up radios and torches which are seen a lot more on the market. A car, however, is something the world needs to be wary of with increasing oil prices and danger of greenhouse gas emissions. There are underlying issues such as the amount of cars on the road and with a growing population more cars will be used and disposed of, putting added worries on what to do with the car tyres as recycling them are difficult, time consuming and already there are heaps of used tyres in skips and landfill sites. They are among the largest and most problematic sources of waste.

To up-cycle tyres would be one solution. A few individuals have already shown some example of this, having made them into objects such as tables, chairs, sandpits, phone and laptop cases, even the floor of your children’s play area. Recently people have been making shoes, in 2008 six Masai warriors ran the London marathon wearing shoes made from tyres. There have been bags and even jewellery out of old tyres. These funky jewellery

pieces show that even the hardest of objects to recycle can eventually come back to fashion and can yet again be used every day. The wire within a tyre however, which is separated during the recycling process, is a problem that no-one has yet solved. There is no apparent way of recycling it, instead it has to be broken down and flat packed, then placed in barrels. Does it have a future? One could weave the wire into a new fibre and make it into a fabric thus bringing it back to fashion. However, the wire you get from tyres is very thin like a pencil lead. Its not that malleable but very brittle, so if it were to be woven it would be fine as long as there was not much manipulation while weaving, for example bending between each warp and weft movement. There is definitely a chance that in 2014 there could be a new fabric from tyre wire. It is exciting to think that something you use everyday can get to the point where it is too worn out to be useful and then is given a new breath of life in a different form; returned to you as useful and perhaps more fabulous than it was in the start. The wire is however set into a circle for the tyre shape. You would most definitely struggle to completely straighten it out because it is so brittle. Although when the tyres come in for recycling they go through a shredder

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that chops the tyre up into chunks and the tyre wire comes out in clean rubber free lengths in measurements between 10cm-40cm. These lengths would be more easily manipulated into something else, for example being made into an object or a fantastic piece of jewellery. Up-cycling as a whole has its chance to be a booming industry in the future. Eventually more and more companies will be enticed and encouraged to make products that are environmentally friendly. The best thing about up-cycling is that it is something one can learn to do oneself and everyone can get involved. The question is: how rubbish are you?

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Bibliography

1) Tilton 2001,p.I.1

2) Timeline To The Future. Over Consumption [online] available

at:<http://www.timelinetothefuture.com/index.php/en/prepare/social-economic-impacts/over-consumption> [access 22/03/12]

3) The telegraph.co.uk, 2011. Vivienne westwood’s mission to save the world,

one handbag at a time [online] (updated 09 August 2011) available at:< http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/columns/olivia-bergin/TMG8691362/Vivienne-Westwoods-mission-to-save-the-world-one-handbag-at-a-time.html> [access 22/03/12]

4) White book.co.uk, 2011. Julies bicycle speaks on festival rubbish [online]

(updated 10 march 2011) available at:< http://www.whitebook.co.uk/features/julies-bicycle-speaks-on-festival-rubbish/6513849.article> [access 22/03/12]

5) Wikipedia, Landfill [online] available at:< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landfill> [access 22/03/12]

Trend blog links: http://redoitdesign.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/2012-interior-design-trends-upscale-upcycling/ http://www.greenmuze.com/green-your/fashion/3563-sexy-cardboard-couture-.html http://www.ecouterre.com/category/womens http://inhabitat.com/tag/upcycled-fashion/ http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/304787/20120226/oscars-2012-red-carpet-celebrity-arrivals-photos.htm http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/red-carpet-green-dress-reveals-winning-design-actress-to-wear-sustainable-gown-to-oscars-139962253.html http://inhabitat.com/lux-led-solar-power-necklace-highlights-future-tech/ http://www.lostateminor.com/2011/07/16/awesome-upcycled-fashion-design-by-christopher-raeburn/ http://www.ecouterre.com/livia-firth-dons-eco-chic-georgio-armani-gown-at-2012-golden-globes/ http://greenlashesandfashion.blogspot.com/2009/07/armour-san-anguish-upcycled-fashion.html http://www.prlog.org/11081439-eco-friendly-fashion-company-upcycles-alluminium-cans-into-designer-fashion.html http://www.upcyclist.co.uk/2011/09/london-fashion-week-ss12-estethica.html http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Estethica&hl=en&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=1u5NT-bqPMjV8QPOt8zaAg&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CBUQ_AUoAQ&biw=1275&bih=680#q=Estethica+exhibition+at+the+London+Fashion+Week+(Feb+07).&hl=en&tbm=isch&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=13dad7e9967f2ac3&biw=1257&bih=600 http://www.junkystyling.co.uk/about/history/ http://www.ecouterre.com/christopher-raeburns-upcycled-military-garments-are-ready-for-anything/ http://www.ecouterre.com/wp-content/plugins/falbum/wp/album.php?album=72157629252513173# http://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/business-topics/discuss/9090109/page/2 http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=urban+outfitters+upcycling&hl=en&source=lnms&ei=RTBXT8ClGcav8AOWyennDg&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=1&ved=0CC4Q_AUoAA&biw=1265&bih=680 http://www.ecouterre.com/diffus-chic-solar-power-bag-flaunts-its-photovoltaic-panels-instead-of-hiding-them/ http://www.upcyclist.co.uk/

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http://www.stylewithheart.com/upcylcing-antonia-edwards/ http://www.junkystyling.co.uk/ http://www.ethicalfashionforum.com/the-issues/recycling http://www.nicefashion.org/en/professional-guide/recycling/ http://www.greenprophet.com/2012/03/saudi-potato-battery/ http://dornob.com/a-beautiful-house-made-from-100-trash-recycled-materials/?ref=search http://www.hometone.com/10-wackiest-eco-friendly-chairs.html http://www.metro.co.uk/lifestyle/816875-eco-fashion-takes-over-the-high-street http://www.ethicalecoart.co.uk/ http://www.iconiclook.com/fashion/so-luxurious-so-organic-so-ethical http://www.ecouterre.com/jane-bowlers-space-age-raincoats-make-fantastic-use-of-recycled-plastic/ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1584436/Social-trends-alcohol-recycling-and-births.html http://thisbigcity.net/collaborative-consumption-and-industrial-symbiosis-two-new-approaches-to-waste-in-cities/ http://www.theecologist.org/green_green_living/clothing/1008515/not_charity_but_work_vivienne_westwoods_ethical_fashion_africa_collection_goes_on_sale.html http://www.theecologist.org/green_green_living/clothing/881447/greening_the_high_street_marketing_trick_or_real_deal.html http://www.hevea.tv/en/recycle/index.html http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/NaturalResources.html