WHen Lauren Mason volunteered to help cleaning at a festival two years ago, and she had no idea that she would change the course of her life. I heard about the tents that are thrown and left. She says her mother is “amazing sewing”, so Mason thought she might be able to use some materials to make clothes.
“I originally went to clean with the idea of making my private jacket. But this is when I realized that the problem was greater than we thought.”
As festivals in Creamfields packed and left, Mason was shown due to the numbers of tents transferred in the fields. I grew up, the borrowing group was the base for camping and festivals because the equipment was expensive; Masson has always felt the duty to take care of the equipment it was bringing. “It was just a rule that unless your tent was burning, you dry it and took it home.”
But in Creamfields, about 80 % of the tents were left behind, to be caught and sent directly to the waste dump. “It is frustrating, when people do what they can. It is a difficult overlap.”
Mason made Tiktok around all the virgin goods she left at the festival, before turning off her phone and wandering to visit her brother. The next time she played her phone, the video had gone viral, and millions of views gathered. At this moment, Mason realized that there is an opportunity to do something greater.
Mason participated this summer in the founding of Retribe, along with her friend Benjamin Harman, with the aim of collecting tents from festivals and preparing them in all kinds of new elements: loads, bottle movements, clothes, accessories. Each piece is unique and made with a little waste. “Even if your tent is broken, this material is great for many other things. This is what we are trying to show people,” Masson says.
An estimated 250,000 tents are left annually in festivals, according to the Independent Association Festivals. “People see this as part of the mark – it is more than that. It is really sad,” Masson says. “These tents are made of nylon or polyester, which takes hundreds of years to decompose. I got a five -year -old son and a seven -year -old son, and when I show them pictures they cannot believe:” Did the police get a mummy? “They even understand recycling.”
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Excessive consumption is a very modern invention. After World War II, the high prosperity, globalization and technological progress led to our culture. Why don’t you buy a jacket in three sizes and throw spare parts when they are produced in large quantities outside for almost nothing and shipping them directly to your door? Every year the UK creates about 1.7 million tons of textile waste. Clothes that do not go directly to the landfill can end Polluted beaches or She accumulated in the Atakama desert.
Retribe is part of a broader battle against such excessive consumption and harmful waste. In the past few years, there has been a global explosion in the used clothing market through sites like Vinted or DePop. It has grown 2.7 times fastest than the total clothing market, according to the research from the Thredup platform.
The culture of repair and installation went on the prevailing, with television programs such as the repair store, Tiktok and Instagram for furniture or clothes. Last year, the European Union approved a teacher The right to reform the law This means that if something collapses, the manufacturer must repair the product at a reasonable price and within a reasonable time frame after the legal guarantee period.
“People are currently learning,” Masson says. “The major companies, the smaller companies, we all learn how bad we have done in the past fifty years of our planet, and what we can do after the product reaches the end of its life.
“Even if we encourage one person for the absence of his tent, this ranges 10 meters of fabric, and the minimum, and we go to the landfill for hundreds of years. But if we can take out a bag from that in order to use them to shop, and now they do not have to buy carrier bags anymore, this is amazing!
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Retribe has played more than 500 tents and wants to take more. But it is not easy to run a sustainable start. It works from the floor of a small factory in Sheffield, and they primarily request the request so as not to lead to excessive production. Lauren does a lot of sewing herself, helping her mother, her best friend, husband, and anyone who has a minute to spare her.
“When I was looking for grants and financing, it was the most important for a sustainability about technology, and I did not fall into that segment. It was really frustrated. So I got a startup loan, and some weeks did not cover even these recovery costs.
“Not enough [funding] There is this type of things. I know that many companies are escalating on a larger scale obtaining grants from the European Union, and all this is now over to us. I feel late in the United Kingdom. “
However, seeing her products there keeps Lauren continuous. It also manages workshops that teach people how to move.
“I didn’t have one person in these workshops, moved away without being able to sew, or a product that was saved. People really surprise you, and they encourage others to have a really big victory for me.”
