My project idea is focused on extending the life cycle of jeans. I want to provide a system in which people can upcycle jean fabric and turn it into another useful product such as technological accessories. This will primarily give another use to jean fabric before the end of life of this product, it is very durable and this makes the products I will create long lasting by sewing them together and creating a new fabric. I will turn this material into laptop sleeves, computer trays and mousepads. To encourage low consumption behaviour by encouraging users to donate their jeans to make these products.
The importance of extending the life of jean fabric is because 64% of jeans produced are made with other materials mixed in with cotton, such as plastic. This was initially created to reduce plastic waste, but it’s worse for the environment because the fabric that is mixed with another material cannot be recycled. Jeans have a lifespan that depends on use, most jeans have a life of a minimum of 5 months to a maximum of 25 years. The amount of energy and water to produce cotton to make fabric is really high as well as the Co2 impact on the environment due to shipping. Half of the components of jean fabric can be biodegradable, the other half aren’t. 68 pounds of clothes are thrown away each year in the US, so the best way to be more sustainable about jeans is by being informed of what you are buying and maximize the life that that fabric has.
This is why I want to create other products using the fabric from these jeans to optimize the end of life of these products. Such as technological accessories that people buy often that could be made out of upcycled jeans. One thing that we need is a laptop sleeve, which is usually made with polyester and PVC plastic. This is something that can be easily be made at home with a pair of jeans and it would have the same function, which is to protect the laptop/IPad.
I reached out to a zero-waste company called Upcycled Mind who owns another company, Remu Apparel. They collect jeans from their customers and offer them a discount. With this fabric, they create new clothes, such as jackets and bags. They gave me a lot of insight into the upcycling industries as well as how to deliver packages in a safe way without using cardboard or plastic. This was something I was interested in for my packaging of the products that I will create, so I asked them for more information on how to deliver products with a zero-waste mind. They use the smaller parts of fabric and scraps, as well as scraps from the clothing industry and they stitch them together to create a tote bag. This tote bag is made with materials that would have gone to landfill and now it’s a material that delivers products safely as well as a gift to their buyer which they can use and avoid using plastic bags. This will reduce distribution impacts.
I believe that my idea would interact with the cradle to cradle certification. Jeans are thrown away to landfills because its fabric is made with plastic because the material is mixed it makes it impossible to recycle. So for me, it’s important to upcycle it so we can give it another use and more life to this material. My intended user would be anyone who owns a computer and cares about sustainability and upcycling.
I used the OKALA strategies to make my design more sustainable. With this in mind I want to provide a system in which within the product the laptop sleeve or iPad sleeve can change its size as the size of these products always changes this will be designed to encourage low consumption behavior and possibly be able to use it for more than 20 years. This product will not have any materials mixed in, so it could be easily disassembled so that when it gets to the end of the life it can be separated and recycled or reused properly. So to minimize the quantity of materials this will only have recycled jean fabric and a zipper.
To make it more accessible, I will provide a pattern to give everyone access to upcycling their jeans. In these patterns, they will have the possibility of downloading patterns of any kind and looking up products they need to buy that can be made out of upcycled jeans. For example, if they need a shopping bag, instead of buying one they can download the pattern and offer them the opportunity to make this at home. This was it’s more affordable and will reduce the consumption of other products.
I will be intervening on the consumption system, by encouraging people to not buy things they could do at home. People have access to many patterns for many products they would not have to buy new fabric products and they could do it at home. I will also be intervening in the packaging and distribution system by not using any packaging and offering a tote bag instead of packaging. I will also intervene on the cradle to grave system by changing it to a cradle to cradle and extending the life of the product.