Refugee-Owned Fashion Label Turns Life Vests Into Bracelets _ UpcycleThis

This has been called the Mountain of Misery. In some places, it reaches over 10 meters tall, and it's made out of life jackets. It's a striking reminder, a symbol of struggle, of separation, death, and disease. It represents the millions of children, aunts, cousins, brothers, fathers, mothers, the millions of people that were forced to abandon everything in hopes of finding a better life. This is a bracelet. It's made out of those same life jackets, and it's also a symbol. But this symbol is one of hope, of accomplishment, a symbol of opportunity. It's the work of one refugee-owned fashion label, collecting unusable life jackets that were previously worn by refugees, which have now become trash, and giving them new life. One that raises awareness for, and directly helps, the community that it represents. And in doing all of that, it also keeps these life jackets out of landfills, from endangering wildlife, and from further polluting our ocean. How does one bracelet accomplish all of that? We're about to find out, as we explore how all of this gets upcycled into these. This is Mohamed Malim. As a former Somalian refugee himself, he's the one that saw these images and was inspired to do something about it. I've seen just a lot of Syrian refugees crossing from the Mediterranean Sea, and I've just seen a whole pile of life jackets, literally littered in the shore of the beaches of Greece, Lesbos. And that was the inspiration for me, was how can I take those life jackets and turn it into something that's meaningful? So in 2018, out of the University of St. Paul in Minnesota, Mohamed founded Epimonia, from the Greek word epimone, meaning perseverance. The company upcycles materials from life jackets that were worn by refugees on their journey across the Mediterranean for asylum, and discarded upon arrival. There's no place to, you know, throw them away, or there's no place to recycle them. And obviously when the refugees flee, they arrive in a beach, so it's the most accessible way, you know, to throw them away. Unfortunately, and you know, this has a lot of environmental impact. And listen to this. These bracelets are handcrafted by refugees in the community, who in many cases took the same route seeking asylum. Mohamed has each bracelet imprinted with a message of hope, saying, building humanity piece by piece. A reminder of his own journey to the U.S., and why he believes in sharing this message of global refugee crisis. I want that product to start conversation, and starting conversation will lead to, you know, supporting refugees on their end. And that's the goal when I design and create products. So how does Epimonia turn life jackets into bracelets? Let's take a look. The process begins on the shorelines of Lesbos, Greece, which became a hotspot for refugees seeking asylum around 2015. There, up to 50 life jackets are collected each month and shipped via container to the Epimonia headquarters. Once the containers arrive, the life jackets are washed and then line dried. Once dried, the life jackets are cut into pieces and stitched together with a leather backing and a sewing machine. If leather is not your thing, don't worry. There's a vegan option as well. Once those pieces are sewn together, metal clasps are added, and snap, you've got a bracelet. The entire process from start to finish takes about two days to complete, which is speedy work, I'd say. The company produces up to 150 of these bracelets each week and has sold 7,000 of them to date since starting in 2018. One unique thing about these bracelets is because of the many types of life jackets that have been found onshore, they come in all sorts of different colors, which mean different things. The cool thing about our bracelet is it has different colors, which means it supports different initiatives in the refugee community. For example, orange bracelet supports providing job employment. Blue bracelet supports providing a scholarship to refugees athletes. The red bracelet is called the citizenship bracelet. It covers citizenship application fees. So that's why, you know, it's very unique. What does all this achieve? Well, for Mohammed and Epimonia, the main goal is raising awareness and helping others. But there's another benefit to cleaning up these life jackets so they're not left to degrade on beaches. Ocean plastic. See, most life jackets have an outer shell made of nylon. They also include a lot of plastic foam such as polyvinyl chloride and polyethylene. These synthetic fibers in the vest degrade over time and they shed microfibers and microplastics, which pollute our environment, they're ingested by wildlife, and they even pose a risk to human health. According to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, since 2014, over 2.3 million refugees have arrived in Europe by sea. You can only imagine the number of discarded life jackets that creates and the number of microplastics and microfibers that they could release and the environmental mess that it could create. See, microplastic pollution can alter the ocean's climate mitigation by reducing both its carbon storage capacity and its resilience to climate change, further perpetuating the ongoing climate crisis. And the climate crisis is weighing heavily against some of the world's most vulnerable people. These communities are experiencing climate impacts on their food, water, land, and other services necessary for human health, settlement, and survival. As the global climate is increasing, refugees are being forced to flee their homes due to natural disaster, drought, and other events as well. And these people are also called climate refugees, you know. So it has so much effect in the refugee crisis. And research has shown that without ambitious climate action and disaster risk reduction, climate-related disasters could double the number of people needing humanitarian assistance to over 200 million people each year by 2050. So what can be done? Well, Epimonia has a goal over the next couple of years to collect around 2,000 life jackets from the ocean and turn them into products. Environmental aspect is very important because as we use these materials, you know, we got to be very conscious of what to do rather than polluting or, you know, leaving them outside. There's something special that we can do and we can recreate them. So far, the company has prevented over 500 life jackets from further polluting our ecosystems. Now, Epimonia's bracelets run between $45 and $80 U.S. And sales from each bracelet support millions of refugees around the world while also cleaning up ocean plastics. All of Epimonia's proceeds directly support refugees at every level, providing job employment, pass to citizenship, assisting application fees, scholarships, and more. Because Mohammed hopes that all refugees receive the same level of support that he and his family felt when they first arrived in the U.S. The company wants to break down the negative stereotypes of refugees by using the platform to collaborate and partner with refugee organizations and share inspiring refugee stories. Their goal is to create awareness and elevate the global refugee community. And Epimonia doesn't stop at bracelets. The company also produces patches out of the life jackets that are sewn onto clothing like hats and sweatshirts to symbolize the refugee crisis. And Mohammed tells us they plan on producing even more. Now, this story probably feels a little different because it is. Life jackets aren't a global littering issue in the same way cigarette butts or plastic bottles are. But they were still creating a waste problem locally. And because of the work Mohammed and Epimonia are doing, there is not only less plastic pollution ending up in our environment, but there is also more attention being drawn to help refugees. And these might feel like separate issues on the surface, but they are so deeply connected. The number of people seeking asylum from impacts of climate change around the world will continue to rise until we do more to address the climate crisis. At least that's how I feel about this. But what are your thoughts? What do you think about these bracelets? And what would you do to recycle a life jacket? Let us know in the comments below.