FoundClothing

TRAIDremade Teams up with Timberland

TRAID — Textile Recycling for Aid and International Development — is a UK-based organization with a three-pronged mission: To divert clothing and shoes from landfills; to reduce world poverty by fund-raising for development projects; and to educate UK citizens on environmental and global poverty issues. TRAID has its own fashion label, TRAIDremade, that features clothing made from second-hand textiles. Recently the company designed a limited edition of recycled denim and leather bags exclusively for Timberland — using reconditioned Timberland jackets and shirts. This bag is an example. It's pretty nice, don't you think?

America Recycles Day is November 15

Now in its 12th year, America Recycles Day is an initiative by Keep America Beautiful and the National Recycling Coalition to encourage Americans to reuse, reduce and recycle. Check the site for information to take the pledge to be a better recycler, to learn about recycling and to find about recycling events in your area. Remember that for clothing resale shops, every day is America Recycles Day, so please take your clothes there instead of to the dumpster.

Building Houses of Style, Literally

Begun in 2006, Cotton. From Blue to Green.org is an initiative by Cotton Incorporated to inform higher-ed students about cotton denim's potential as a renewable resource. This year, students at the University of Memphis, the University of Kentucky and six other U.S. schools are hosting campaigns to donate their unwanted jeans for reuse. The jeans will be converted into UltraTouch: a natural cotton, environmentally safe fiber insulation that is 85% recycled cotton. The campaign has collected almost 100,000 pieces of denim since 2006 — enough to insulate 150 homes.

This year's campaign runs through early November, so if you live anywhere near the eight participating college campuses, contact the student rep and handover your unwanted denim. ALSO: Until Nov. 3, you can take your unwanted jeans to your nearest Vanity store to get 25% off.

Levi's Encourages Recycling

Levi Strauss — the jeans company, not the French philosopher — is going to start attaching tags to its clothes encouraging people to recycle their clothing instead of throw it away, reports Advertising Age. They're teaming up with Goodwill on this project. Big ups for the intention of this campaign, but (some questions):

— Do you think putting tags in people's jeans will be effective in reducing "jean waste"?

— Isn't manufacturing and installing tags just extra material-making?

— Why not put the "hey pal, maybe you should donate your useful unwanted clothing instead of throw it away, huh?" message on the outside of the jeans, thereby creating a new and fashionable type of PSA/billboard jean? Jeans often come bedazzled or with sequins, so this could be a bold new step for Levi S, once they and the public get over the complete 1990s-ness of it all.

MIT's Trash Track Project

Seen on Planetsave: Trash Track, a project of MIT's SENSEable City lab, tracks different kinds of waste generated in NYC and Seattle using electronic smart tags. The goal is to monitor trash-making patterns and draw attention to deficiencies in the waste disposal system. The project involves volunteers who tag their trash. Would you volunteer for such a project?

Recycling News Highlights

• This clothing swap at New York University in NYC sounds like fun -- especially with the incorporation of Capri Sun pouches into the remake-recycled-clothes-athon component. Sounds kind of like the event that took place here in Chicago last March. The store referred to in the article, AuH2O, is here, and also in NYC's East Village (three-dimensional version). 

• Meanwhile, up the road in Pittsfield, MA, the Center for Environmental Technology collected almost a ton of clothing in just four hours during a recent clothing drive. Goodwill co-hosts this annual event; the donations end up going to them, or converted into rags and car interiors.
  

• Earth Day brought coverage of Nike's shoe recycling program, Reuse-a-Shoe. Go to the website and learn how your beat up shoes get turned into "Nike Grind." It's not a coffee substitute.

From Cereal Box to Wallet

Whoah, look: You can make a wallet out of your cereal box. I like how it's so slender -- an indirect reflection of how the times are impacting people's cash ownership. 

The article says, "Makes a unique Father's Day gift and works great for business cards, too." Seems unlikely that Dad would use such a thing, especially if Dad is an executive of something, somewhere, but who knows.

Recycling Hangers

According to Chicago green blogger Ecowabi, the best place to recycle wire hangers is at the dry cleaners. Makes sense: Most wire hangers seem to come from dry cleaners. My observation is partly based upon all the wire hangers I see junked by the dozen in trash bins: They come in haphazard bundles of about 50, and all have those little sheets of paper with hearts or smiley faces on them to distinguish one dry cleaner's crappy wire hangers from another's. I mean, who would actually buy those things?

Crappy or not, hangers are scrap metal, so it's a good idea to save them from the landfill.

From Tape to Two-Piece + Repurposing Thrift Store Cast-offs

This article from the CBC talks about Mass Exodus: Chiaroscuro, a fashion show to be held at Toronto's Ryerson University this week. It won't be any old fashion show: The clothes are made from grocery bags and video tape, among other things that usually end up in landfills. Click on the link to see a two-piece bathing suit made out of audiotape (top) and videotape (bottom). 

In other Canadian recycled fashions/Ryerson University fashion student news: Paper People's Jennifer Fukushima buys wholesale the excess donations from thrift stores and uses them to make all-new fashions. This is her full-time job now, according to the Martlet student paper. Pretty impressive.

National Cell Phone Recycling Week

Oh hey -- it's a new thing, and it's this week (April 5-12). Check out the EPA's website for details, or just walk your old phone to your nearest cell phone store. Mailing's another option, but that's soo 20th century.

You can also make art out of your cell phone. How? That's for you to figure out. If you do, send a photo -- I'll post it.

Only 10 percent of cell phones are recycled each year, the EPA says. Cell phones contain toxic metals that can end up in the water stream, so recycle those puppies!

The Afterlife of American Clothes

My friend sent me the link to this article about pepe (in Haiti, "imported used goods") and a short documentary called Secondhand (pepe) that examines the global recycled clothing market. Check it out. Or check out clips from the movie.

Baton Rouge's Progressive, Recycled Jewelry

This is olds, not news, but I saw it this evening. Pretty progressive for a city government to run a recycled jewelry contest. Good work, Baton Rouge and crafties.

Profiles in Forage: Freeganism in Detroit

Three articles on freeganism, coming right up. This one's from the Metro Times Detroit.

Freeganing in Florida

Columnist Erin Sullivan of the St. Petersburg Times recently found that freeganing in Fla. has a bit of an overpowering, olfactory effect. Heat does that, at least to food.

Sullivan refers to an Oprah episode on freegans that friend Karen told me about a few months ago, but which TV-free me didn't see. I couldn't believe that Oprah didn't call me up for that -- like, I'm just up the street! Man O man.

Freeganism Article

From the Gair Rhydd student weekly, published in Cardiff, Wales. Pull quote: "There are many people who would not call themselves Freegans who are still adopting parts of the lifestyle to try and be more environmentally friendly." Yep!

Buffalo Exchange and FoundClothing Team Up to Provide Discounts

Greetings, post-Earthdaylings. If you look to the right, you'll notice a coupon good for $5 off any purchase of $20 or more at Buffalo Exchange -- the tasteful, discriminating national resale chain. The Buffalistas keep people of modest means looking swank -- check out their stores (once again, across the U.S.) to find vintage stuff, trendy pieces, and basic essentials.

The discount is a joint venture by BE and this here 'lil Website, so drag your virtual friends over to BE's site, and then ask them to kindly make a pit stop over here.

The stores in Lakeview and Wicker Park in Chicago will honor the coupon. The point of this offer? To hopefully encourage all of the students to practice ... prudence ... and recycle their unwanted clothes come "gonna move out of my college apartment now" time, instead of just throwing it away in the trash. College moving days are hot ones for trash pickers, due to the wastefest that typically comes spring semester-end. Hats off to BE for giving people an option to landfill patronage!

Craft Supplies Needed

The Swap-o-Rama-Rama is coming to Chicago on March 29, and the organizers need lots of ribbons, thread, beads, fabric paint and other fun stuff to embellish the clothing, accessories and toys that will be made during the event. Please clean out your "stash" and donate it to a worthy cause!

Contact Katie Hawkey (773.398.6339) to arrange for pick up or drop off. She's got a car and can come to you. Any unused donations go to the Three Sisters Folk Arts School.