From packaging waste to fashion: How upcycling is reshaping style

Khairul Nizam Anuar Bashah, Nik Nur Eeman Nik Mohd Fahmee and Mohd Istajib Mokhtar

Let us paint a simple picture. You open a new shirt. You pull off the plastic sleeve. You throw it aside. Then you move on. Most of us do.

But here is the twist. That little piece of plastic carries a bigger story than it seems. You are part of it. We are too. So let us slow down for a moment.

Fashion and waste have lived side by side for years. You feel the excitement of new clothes plus the guilt of knowing more packaging ends up in landfills.

But something interesting is happening now. Designers are picking up what many people toss out. They turn crisp packets into handbags. They fuse bubble wrap into jackets. They show that waste can become style.

This creative shift links directly to the United Nations’ sustainable development goal 12 on sustainable consumption and production.

According to McKinsey in a 2024 report, the fashion industry contributes up to 3–8% of carbon emissions.

This reality pushes the sector to rethink how it uses resources. Upcycling, which means turning discarded materials into items of higher value, sits at the centre of this change.

Fashion has made many promises about sustainability. Yet it remains one of the most polluting industries worldwide.

According to McKinsey in its Sustainability in Packaging 2025 report, 51% of global consumers say environmental impact matters to them. But they still choose items based on hygiene, price and convenience.

Circular ideals sound good, but they often lose to old habits. This keeps the linear take, use, dispose cycle alive.

A recent study by researcher Samborska in 2024 found that packaging waste makes up almost 40% of global plastic waste. Packaging accounts for 37% of total plastic waste in the United States. It’s 38% in Europe, and in China, it’s 45%.

Most of it lands in places with no proper management and inevitably seeps into the environment and becomes microplastics, which for the first time in history are now present in breastmilk, according to a 2022 article in The Guardian.

McKinsey’s The Fashion Industry Faces a World in Flux report from 2025 also notes that consumers are rethinking what counts as stylish. People favour resale, pre-loved items and clever dupes.

Upcycled fashion fits this pattern. It gives uniqueness plus affordability, with a lower environmental cost.

Turning delivery bags into tote bags or plastic sleeves into jackets sounds like a clever sustainability story. It looks good and trends well. But behind every upcycled fashion item is a quiet force shaping what is possible: the law.

As packaging waste floods landfills and oceans, governments are tightening rules on who is responsible. One of the most powerful tools is extended producer responsibility or EPR, which forces companies to pay for the collection, recycling and proper handling of their packaging.

Extended producer responsibility could be the foundation of circular economies. In simple terms, brands are now being legally pushed to think about waste before it exists.

A global plastics treaty is now being negotiated under the UN. It is expected to regulate plastics across their full life cycle and push reuse and producer responsibility.

Designers will increasingly be judged not only on style and cost, but on legal compliance.

There are also hidden risks. Packaging was not designed for human skin, so safety rules and consumer protection laws apply. Claims like ‘recycled’ or ‘upcycled’ must meet legal standards. Digital labelling in the EU allows materials to be traced even after they become unfashionable.

The law does not exist to kill creativity, but it sets the boundaries. Upcycled fashion can support circular economy goals, but only when businesses follow waste, safety and labelling rules. Without that, sustainability quickly turns into greenwashing or illegality.

For brands and designers, the future depends on collaboration. Clean, sorted packaging waste is hard to find, and contamination remains a major barrier. Working directly with waste collectors and recyclers can secure better material streams.

Design choices matter too: mono-materials, fewer adhesives and simpler structures make packaging easier to transform.

Storytelling is also part of the strategy. A product becomes more powerful when consumers understand its past life. “This wallet was once a courier bag,” is not just a fact, it becomes a brand narrative.

For policymakers, the challenge is to move beyond basic recycling and actively support upcycling.

Extended producer responsibility schemes can reward companies that design packaging with second lives in mind. Investment in sorting and collection infrastructure is critical, especially in emerging economies. Cross-border rules must prevent illegal dumping without blocking legitimate circular businesses. Incentives like tax breaks and green public procurement can push the practice into the mainstream.

For consumers, power lies in choices and questions. Supporting brands that are transparent about materials sends a signal. So does asking uncomfortable questions: “What happens to your packaging?” and “Could this become something else?”

And for researchers, the work is only beginning. More evidence is needed on durability, safety and consumer acceptance of upcycled fashion. Data on carbon savings, waste reduction and resource use can turn creative ideas into credible policy.

In the end, turning waste into fashion is not just a design challenge. It is a legal, political and cultural story stitched together by rules that decide whether rubbish can truly become a runway.

Fashion is no longer just about what looks good, but about what can be saved. What was once thrown away is now being stitched, folded, and reimagined into something new.

Upcycling packaging waste shows that style and responsibility do not have to be opposites. However, creativity alone is not enough.

Laws, systems and consumer choices ultimately decide whether this movement grows or fades. If brands, policymakers and consumers move together, rubbish does not have to end in landfills. It can end up on the runway and in everyday life as proof that waste can be rewritten into worth.

Khairul Nizam Anuar Bashah, Nik Nur Eeman Nik Mohd Fahmee and Dr Mohd Istajib Mokhtar are from the Faculty of Science, University of Malaya.

Support our work by making a donation. Tap to download the QR code below and scan this QR code from Gallery by using TnG e-wallet or most banking apps: