Trashion Show and Modern Myths

Last year, I had the honor of being invited by the Triveni Institute to serve as a judge for their annual Trashion Show. It was an amazing experience, and I was truly impressed by the talent showcased at the event! This year, I was given the choice of judging again or being a designer. While I would have loved to have judged again, I was even more excited about taking on the challenge of using trash materials to design something wearable.

Although if I'm being completely honest, I was and remain terrified of this challenge. Making clothing is not really in my wheelhouse, and making clothing out of a material that isn't really "making clothing" friendly is...a daunting task.

But I did it! Or....I'm doing it! Because I have made a dress, but the dress isn't finished yet. Here's a sneak peek:

The "fabric" for the dress is entirely made out of white grocery bags that friends donated to me.

The corset for the dress is one of my worn-out shoes, and the shoelaces that went with them. The shoelaces say "self-love isn't selfish," which I love.

The beads for the dress are all hand-cut from water balloon straws.

I would take the dress to the Peoria Riverfront Market to work on it during down times.

It's still not finished, but so much progress!

The water balloon straws are the lesson in the dress, and address the theme of the Trashion Show - "Modern Mythology." The marketing for these water balloon toys claims that the straws are recyclable and that the balloons are biodegradable, in an attempt to lead consumers to believe that this is somehow an environmentally friendly product. One of their taglines is even "Join us in unleashing a more sustainable summer."

However, it would seem that most recycling facilities will not take the straws. And while Terracycle did have a specific recycling program in place to take these straws at one time, when I checked their website recently, that program could not be found. Terracycle does have a recycling box that you could use to recycle items like this, but the cost is over $150.

The balloons and the tiny rubber bands used to secure them onto the straws are another issue entirely. Balloons can take months to years to decompose, and the decomposition process makes the balloons sticky - a bit like a glue trap. Sticky balloons can trap insects and can be swallowed as food items by other animals. I find these tiny water balloon fragments all over the place when I take walks - it would appear that lots of folks who purchase these toys are not aiming for a "sustainable summer," as they leave literally hundreds of pieces of trash behind when they are done playing. The worst time finding these balloon fragments was when I found over 500 pieces, just steps away from a bird sanctuary where an endangered species was nesting.

I do need to acknowledge that the straws themselves are being marketed as being made out of recycled plastic, which is certainly a step forward. But I can't imagine that the creators of this product aren't aware that consumers don't seem to be picking up the balloon fragments when they're finished playing, they don't seem to be using the straws again to refill balloons (making this a single-use toy), and that claims of recyclability are at best prohibitively expensive for the average consumer.

And so I think this is such a good example of how we should push companies that want to be sustainable and who make claims of sustainability to educate their customers, and to close the loop on their products by taking them back at the end of their lifespan to recycle them themselves. Without that, a "recyclable" product seems to be nothing more than a myth.