If it hasn’t quite entered your consciousness just yet, then it will do soon – and in a very big way. Simply defined it is the reuse of discarded objects or materials in such a way as to create a product of higher quality or value than the original. Of course this thrift based activity has always existed as the means of production on a modest cottage industry level since time immemorial, like the tradition of quilting that in Europe goes back to the Crusades in the 12th century. It is only in recent times however that upcycling as a viable commercial market has taken off quite so impressively in both breadth and scale, ranging from upcycling clothes to upcycling furniture and even upcycling art.

This simple homespun idea has captivated a growing international countercultural community that has become politicised in its effort to challenge capitalism with an alternative, circular economy of zero economic growth and zero waste, based on thrift, self reliance and localism. On a fundamental level upcycling is tapping into a collective psychology that is disturbed by the ravages of our wastefulness, and mindful of the dangers that we and anything else on this planet with a heartbeat may drown or choke on the growing ocean of our own shit; mindful also of the excesses of consumer culture – not only it’s vanity, vulgarity and selfishness, but also its downright inequitable offensiveness; and attracted to the hyper-evolved folksy wisdom implicit in the notion of ‘make-do-and-mend’.

But you don’t have to be a revolutionary to be an upcycler – though at the very least some lip service needs paying to a loose set of underlying ethics. The business opportunities offered by the low start up costs and overheads, and the endless and growing supply of rubbish, have proved very tempting to the vast number of entrepreneurs that have piled into this activity. Combine all that with the sense of conscience that upcycling masterfully taps into, that you are doing something useful and worthwhile, and assuaging your consumer guilt whilst simultaneously turning a healthy profit – and obviously this concept is going to be a winner. And so it is proving to be. The number of products for example on the online market place Etsy tagged with the word “upcycled” increased from about 7,900 in January 2010 to nearly 30,000 a year later—an increase of 275%. By April 2013, that number had shot up to 263,685, a whopping additional increase of 879%.

Upcycling clothes, furniture, art and lives

This burgeoning niche business practice slots into the already well established sustainability market that is turning a cost into an opportunity, as environmental awareness is being embraced by consumers, governments – wielding both carrots and sticks – and shareholders alike. And the opportunities have not been lost on the fashion world either. Earlier this year the celebrity musician, and man-of-the-moment Pharrell Williams, launched a collaborative denim collection with G-Star Raw made from waste plastic from the ocean, called Raw For The Oceans. Williams has taken on the role of creative director at New York based Bionic Yarn which transforms fibres from the plastic into durable textiles, and he is also co-designer for the G-Star collection. The combination of well-designed sustainable upcycling and cool celebrity endorsement, may prove to be irresistible.

Whether this venture will make a blind bit of difference to ocean plastic is of course another matter. The entire range utilises only 9 tons of ocean plastic and may in any case once again end up back in the ocean, in an ironic form of recycling. The fact is that when in excess of 265m tonnes of plastic are produced globally each year and 10% of that ends up in the ocean, even if every article of clothing in the world – let alone jeans – were made of ocean plastic, the effort would still be, well… just a drop in the ocean.



