Reducing Fashion Industry Waste through Upcycling

Visual culture
How can we
reduce the waste
by upcycling
within the fashion
Industry?
Contents

INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY........................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES....................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
The main topic which this essay will be based on is sustainability as it is vital
to analyse and understand the various issues related to environmental safety along
with the potential solutions that corporates have devised to get around them (Chen,
Wang and Zhang, 2021). One of the major aforementioned solutions which is the
theme that the visual research of this essay will focus on is the upcycling which is a
process of adding economic and fiscal value to the waste materials and leftover
residue after processing to make entirely new and valuable products from it and it is
primarily observed in the fashion industry where the leftover waste stream is quite
unsustainable. My theme will be about waste reduction within the fashion industry by
creating less and use more. What I like about my theme is that by upcycling we get
to use the things we love for a longer period of time causing less harm to the
environment. My theme is important in today's climate as we are going through a lot
of waste, pollution, global warming that are driving the climate change, so I believe
my theme is a step forward towards sustainability. The chosen theme of upcycling in
fashion industry will be connected in this essay to the theory of green economics
which advocates for sustaining an economy where all sectors and industries are
ecologically sound and non-detrimental to the environment. This theory is quite
appropriate to the subject matter being investigated as in order to pursue a greener
economy, the contribution of major industries such as fashion is very important by
adopting measures of greener economy with processes such as upcycling which
turns waste material into useful amenities. The main aim of this essay will be to
highlight the process of upcycling and study its potential of reducing waste in the
fashion industry and connecting it to the prospect of having a greener economy via
the green economics theory. The main research method that this essay will comprise
of will be a primary research done through the collection of 10 images connecting to
the topic at hand of upcycling and the mentioned theory of green economy. This
collection is important to the research investigation at hand as the images along with
their responses will help study the process of upcycling in detail and will result in
drawing of clear conclusions related to alleviating the major problems related to
sustainability.

MAIN BODY
The concept of sustainability is mainly related to being committed towards
environmental responsibilities and using natural resources in a judicious manner to
ensure their existence for future generations. The theories related to sustainability
first appeared in 1987 in the famous Brundtland report provided to the UN by several
countries highlight emergency actions due to mass misuse of natural resources. This
essay will highlight the development of sustainable measures undertaken by the
fashion industry over the years with respect to the process of Upcycling. This
process is also closely applicable to one of the most popular theories of sustainability
which is green economics wherein sustainable and greener practices are advocated
for the benefit for the environment. The theory and concept of Green economy was
first coined in 1989 when established researchers in the field of ecology and
environmental study gave a pioneering report to the government of the United
Kingdom (Pearce, Markandya and Barbier, 1989). This initial blueprint spearheaded
the role of corporates and big industries to adopt greener practices which the fashion
industry is quite a big part of. This research investigation is also quite important in
contemporary context as fashion industry’s amount of carbon emission is quite
substantial (Qin, Gao and Li, 2018).
The main area which I would like to investigate via this research is the role of
upcycling in the reduction of waste in fashion industry and its link to the theory of
green economics and sustainability. The main research methodologies which this
essay will utilize in order to achieve this objective to study upcycling and its role in
reducing wastage is primary research based on 10 images and their visual element
analysis. There will also be application of auto-ethnographic research as the
images will be interpreted using personal opinions and use of reflective practice. The
main aim of this research is to select 10 specific images which tie to the chosen
theme and the introduced theory based on primary responses in order to prove a set
hypothesis. The main questions which this essay will seek to answer based on
conducted research will involve “what is the process of upcycling?”, “how does
upcycling help reduce wastage?” and “can upcycling help the fashion industry in
becoming more sustainable?” The main hypothesis that this visual research will be
based on will be “How can we reduce the waste by upcycling within the fashion
Industry?”