by Cherie Birkner

Have you ever seen what’s left over to go to waste after a festival? To be honest I haven’t. I’ve only even been to one festival in my life. So, little did I know; when the base stops bumping and we have found our ways home there is a whole landscape of trash left over… Or wait:

ISN’T WASTE ONLY WASTE IF WE WASTE IT?

In 2017 Katrin Rieber, the Designer behind tentation, noticed that right at the top of the list of left behind festival equipment were tents. At some festivals there even are organizations that donate the well-preserved tents to the homeless and refugees, there are still countless 3-4 days “old” tents remaining. The festivals themselves doesn't have the budget to separate rubbish from usable items, which results in everything being throw away. How much this is? To be exact at Fusion Festival, one of Germany’s most popular, about 490 metric tons [1], and statistically seen every 3rd tent [2].

UPCYCLING TENTS TO RAINWEAR

“Valuable materials in huge quantities shouldn't just be destroyed. We want to draw attention to this waste and create awareness for the sustainable use of our resources and our environment. Our approach is therefore: to create something out of what others throw away. Tentation creates something long-lasting from the supposed rubbish of our short-term throwaway consumer society. With our collection, we are upcycling the highly durable and rainproof tent fabrics and using them to design fashionable and everyday accessories such as bags and backpacks as well as rainwear.” - Kathrin Rieber.

MINIMIZING PLASTIC USE

When you buy outdoor clothes, especially water repellant items like raincoats, you will find the main material on the market to be polyester, which is made from fossil fuels, which relies on pulling more oil and coal out of the ground. We are not yet able to recycle polyester fiber and it is not biodegradable. Did I mention that polyester is my least favorite material? Nevertheless, it does have unique qualities that are hard to replace, so upcycling is kind of legitimately the best way to make weather resistant clothes.

CROWDFUNDING

Today Katrin is launching a crowdfunding to collect money for a new website and to prepare for the (hopefully soon) returning festival season. Her vision is to create contact points where festival visitors can learn about circularity and bring their old/broken tents, air mattresses, pavilions, umbrellas, etc. to be upcycled into new unique fashion items for the next rainy day. Or sunny day. This cute bucket hat for example is just perfect for the indecisive weather in Berlin these days, keeping me dry in the rain and protected from the sun.

SOURCES:
[1] & [2] These numbers are provided by tentation. We have NOT fact-checked them!