As Landfills Approach Capacity, Upcycling Gains Momentum More Kansas Citians Are Embracing Ways to Divert Waste

Karen Sullivan’s tunic is made from a tablecloth, but you would never know it. 

The white cotton material, intricately crocheted into circles and patterns, has been sewn into a wearable garment. Sullivan motioned to the tunic as she described the materials she looks for when upcycling garments and other textile products. 

“I really go probably more towards textiles that have a lot of yardage — tablecloths, bed linens, blankets,” said Sullivan, an upcycling advocate based in Kansas City. “…and then I just use patterns that I find that work well with upcycled fabrics.” 

Upcycling takes products and materials considered waste and repurposes them into something of value. It’s distinct from recycling, which takes waste and transforms it back into its original state so it can be used to create a new product. 

Sullivan started her business selling upcycled products several years ago. Originally from California, she began selling mittens made from upcycled wool that could withstand the frigid Midwest winters. Now, Sullivan inspires others to upcycle on her Instagram and teaches upcycling classes at KC Maker Studio and Fabrics. 

Sullivan credited ScrapsKC, a hub for second-hand craft and school supplies, as a big part of her upcycling journey. 

“What we try to do is to provide resources and education and a space for people to upcycle materials, but the most important piece is to change people’s minds to become more responsible consumers,” said Brenda Mott, executive director of ScrapsKC. 

Mott, who started the organization in 2016 with her husband, said the vision of ScrapsKC is to transform the unwanted into something of value. In June, ScrapsKC celebrated diverting 1 million pounds — or 500 tons — of materials from landfills. 

“Everything that comes through is either used or resold in our resale store, or it’s donated to teachers for free, or we send it off to another organization, and very, very little goes in the trash,” Mott said. 

The Kansas City area will soon welcome another upcycling organization. The Magpie Creative Reuse Collective was founded this spring and has been working on opening its own creative reuse center in the Kansas City area. 

“Not only are we going to be selling reused materials or making those materials available to the public for affordable prices, but we also support the use of reuse materials through education, shared resources and innovative ways to look at how to reuse materials,” said Keli Campbell, a founding board member of Magpie Creative Reuse Collective. 

Campbell said the collective aims to broaden the availability of reuse and upcycling in Kansas City. Their mission, Campbell said, is to keep things useful for longer. 

“I think all reuse is really about reduction,” Campbell said,” Our goal is always to reduce what we are consuming.” 

Upcycling keeps waste out of area landfills, which are running out of capacity. A 2023 report from Kansas City estimates that regional landfills are currently at over half their capacity and are projected to hit their maximum capacity in 2037. 

A proposal for a new landfill in south Kansas City recently was thwarted after Missouri Gov. Mike Parsons signed legislation that prohibited the construction of landfills in Kansas City within a mile of another municipality without that city’s approval. 

But the waste must go somewhere, and the U.S. continues to generate more of it each year. 

In 2018, the U.S. generated 4.9 pounds of waste per person per day, nearly twice as much waste per person as in 1960, according to Environmental Protection Agency estimates. 

The State of Our Waste

Curbing Our Consumption 

The idea of overconsumption is a relatively new phenomenon, said Brooke Bowlin, a sustainable fashion writer and educator based in Kansas City. 

“It used to be that getting clothes made was a hyper-local process where you commissioned someone to tailor your clothes and it was super slow and those were like the only clothes that you had,” she said. 

Bowlin said many of the garments being donated to second-hand stores are already out-of-style because of how quickly fashion trends change. Furthermore, fast fashion uses synthetic fibers to produce clothing that is lower quality, which limits its longevity, according to Bowlin. 

“It’s a product that is going to last a long time, but is it likely a well-constructed garment? No.” Bowlin said. “So, it’s just going to be the fabric itself that is sitting in a landfill, most likely for potentially centuries, which is a massive problem when you’re turning out millions of those articles a year and we have no way, really, to recycle them with our current infrastructure.” 

Bowlin first confronted textile waste in college when she owned her own second-hand store. Her store accepted all donations, she said, which meant she got tons of clothing. 

“And not all of them were usable, re-sellable. It was just kind of recognizing how much excess we keep around us,” Bowlin said. “And now I’m the one having to deal with it and find the solutions to it. And there’s not a lot of good solutions for it.” 

Bowlin said she sees upcycling as a unique opportunity in the “sustainability space.” 

Sullivan laid out a list of options for dealing with excess textiles and materials, such as not buying new items, mending the items you already own and upcycling. Recycling, both Sullivan and Mott said, should be the last option. 

“It takes way too much of our natural resources to recreate a new product, and that’s our concern,” Mott said. “Our mantra is reduce, reuse and refuse, rather than recycle, because that should be one of the last things that you do. We need to find other purposes and stop buying as much as we have been buying.” 

Re.Use.Full, another Kansas City-based organization, matches individuals looking to donate unwanted items with nonprofits in the area. They also offer repair cafés, where community members can learn to repair their clothing, small appliances, jewelry and more. 

“We started the repair cafés and are just looking at sustainability at a broader level, I think, and how we can be a thought leader,” said Leslie Scott, founder of Re.Use.Full. “…and just being a resource for folks in the community who are interested in how they can keep their stuff out of the landfill in whatever way that might be, whether it’s reuse, whether it’s donating, whether it’s repairing it, so they don’t have to replace it, all those things.” 

The Magpie Creative Reuse Collective is hoping to start accepting donations in August, Campbell said. They are also looking for volunteers to help sort and be neighborhood collectors. 

“A neighborhood collector just mobilizes your own community,” Campbell said. “You tell your neighbors, ‘Hey, I’m collecting supplies for this creative reuse center. On this day, please drop off anything that’s on their list: art supplies, craft supplies, textiles.’ And then that neighborhood collector is the one who will transport them to our collection site.” 

Mott said ScrapsKC is always looking for volunteers to help manage the donations they receive and that volunteering at any organization that upcycles or repurposes materials is a way to get involved in sustainability initiatives. 

“But certainly, making decisions before they purchase,” Mott said. “Stopping and thinking about, ‘What am I purchasing? What am I going to use it for? Do I already have it at home?’ And really making a conscious effort to be responsible in their purchasing.” 

Julie Freijat is a Kansas City PBS/Flatland reporter and a Report for America corps member working with the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk. Her work is made possible, in part, through the generous support of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.