Gen Z entrepreneurs give new life to waste fabric

Several toy bears in cute uniforms sat at a booth at Rethink HK 2024. Many passersby stopped to take photos and touched them gently. 

These bears were wearing clothes made from discarded old school uniforms. Their handbags and hats were also made from waste fabrics.

Dress Green, a social enterprise founded by 29-year-old Emma Yu and her husband, has partnered with around 30 local schools to recycle used school uniforms into the UNI Green Series. 

The Series offers a wide variety of souvenirs for student graduation gifts, including bears wearing old uniforms, pencil bags, tote bags, pouch shoulder bags, fisherman’s hats, cushions etc. 

Since the startup's inception in 2021, it has recycled over 3,000 uniforms and pieces of clothing, and produced more than 4,500 upcycling products, according to Dress Green.

The growth of Hong Kong's fast fashion industry has resulted in tons of textile waste being sent to landfills, and many Gen Z members have discovered the serious impact of textile industry pollution on the environment and have created sustainable brands in the hope of combating excessive fabric waste and drawing more attention to the issue.

“I felt that Gen Z are more focused on sustainability issues than the previous generation,” said Howard Ling, 49, a social enterprise consultant and Professor of Practice at Baptist University. “This is because they are getting more information about environmental protection from diversified media channels and also from schools and communities.” 

With the rise of fast fashion, the amount of clothing produced and thrown away has skyrocketed. According to the European Parliament, the global fashion industry generated nearly 20% of the wastewater and about 10% of the carbon emissions in 2023. 

In Hong Kong, 404 tons of textile waste were sent to landfills each day in 2021, accounting for 3.6% of municipal solid waste, while less than 1% of textiles are recycled, according to the Environmental Protection Department.

“Initially, the clothing factory where my friend worked had hundreds of clothes to be thrown away,” Emma Yu said. “So I wanted to recycle these clothes and sell them in a second-hand online store, but this market was very competitive.”

Yu abandoned the idea of ​​making clothes from recycled fabrics due to a lack of funds, but she started making mini outfits for toy bears after noticing that dolls were popular among teenage students.

“What we are doing is to turn waste into treasure,” said Yu. “It is our pride and mission to lead the society towards a green future.” 

In addition, Dress Green also cooperates with the Haven of Hope Christian Service and the Mental Health Association of Hong Kong to hire retired elderly people, housewives and people with disabilities to make clothes and trinkets for the UNI Bears. 

Dress Green has provided over 5,300 working hours for elderly, housewife and people with disability since it was founded.

“It takes decades of experience to make these delicate handicrafts and mini outfits, and the elderly are really competent to handle it,” Yu said.

“I have a lot of free time after sending my kids to school every day so I  can work here for five hours a day,” said Eilen Chow, 35, a housewife who came to work at Dress Green last year, “The job is not very hard and I can earn money to subsidize my family,” she said.

Another social enterprise founded by three Gen Zers, Stote, is also upcycling fabric waste into fashion products, with denim as their focus.

“We found that the process of producing denim causes huge water pollution compared to regular cloth,” said Chi Sze, 23, cofounder of Stote. 

According to a report on the National Library of Medicine, the production of denim dyes and desizing, which is the removal process of previously applied size materials, generates large amounts of wastewater and pollutes rivers with toxic chemicals. 

“But because denim is thicker than other fabrics, they have more value if being transformed into high-quality, durable fashionable products.”

Stote also found disposable hotel slippers wasteful. It has launched an eco-friendly hotel slippers solution called ECO STEPINN, which uses garment waste from small garment factories in mainland China instead of polyester fiber to make slippers.

“There are 324 hotels in Hong Kong that consume more than 17.5 million pairs of disposable slippers each year,” said Sze. “The process of producing these generates about 3,000 tons of carbon emissions and nearly 100 million liters of water consumption annually.”

 “Meanwhile, the government's policy of controlling disposable plastic products is a major challenge for hotels, which need to be switched to environmentally friendly alternatives,” Sze added. 

Currently, Stote is communicating with a number of hotels to prototype the product and work towards a formal partnership. “If the hotel adopts the ECO STEPINN slippers, it is expected to reduce carbon emissions by about 40 tons and plastic production by 2 tons per year,” said Kenny Leung, 23, cofounder of Stote. 

Dress Green has held around 100 creative workshops in schools, helping students participate in remaking recycled materials into various fashion products, such as shopping bags, bowties and wallets. The workshops aim to engage students in sustainable issues.

“Rational consumption and environmentally responsible consumption is actually a more effective way to reduce fashion waste at the source than recycling and reusing,” said Emma Yu. “That’s why education is so important.”

Stote participated in green bazaars and organized secondary school workshops to encourage more people in the community to contribute to sustainability through small actions.

“I really appreciate these up-cycled denim products, because they not only avoid waste, but also look nice,” said Vince Tong, 26, a visitor who once came to Stote’s community workshop. “ This workshop reminded me to reconsider my fast fashion lifestyle, and I would love to give my unwanted clothes to them if possible.”

According to a report by First Insight in 2020, a  platform that empowers retailers with zero-party consumer data, more than half of Gen Z consumers prefer to buy sustainable brands, and they are most willing to spend 10%  more on sustainable products. 

“Gen Z consumers have strong environmental awareness and innovative ideas, and they are  willing to work hard to turn them into reality,” said Au Nga-kei, 35, Director of Environmental Education and Promotion at Christian Family Service Center. “ It's amazing that these young people are using their power to raise environmental awareness of the whole community.” 

Nicholas Ooi, 40, HKBU Innovation Lead and the faculty advisor of Stote, said most Gen Z startups concern more about social contribution than earning money. 

“If these startups can operate for a long time, then it will be an encouraging sign for Hong Kong’s green future,” Ooi added. “But they may face both operational and financial difficulties due to lack of experience and networks.”

“Initially, we wanted to make shopping bags out of recycled clothes, but the idea didn't work out due to cost considerations,” Sze said. “Ooi helped us develop new ideas, encouraged us to join competitions to get funding and gave us opportunities to sell our products. He also shared contact information of the general manager of the hotel with us.”

Staffing has become one of Dress Green’s problems at the moment.

“At the beginning, it was just me and my husband doing this full-time, but we still didn’t have time to deal with everything,” Yu said. “Now there are eight of us, so the pressure is less, but we want one more talent in marketing.”

“In addition, we plan to expand our market to include more companies than just cooperating with schools,” Yu added.

“We hope more people will prioritize recycled products,” Yu said. “It is a constant process of transformation to a green future, and all our efforts count.”