Upcycle Jeans with MFC

Upcycle Jeans with MFC is a service that makes it easier for denim lovers in the U.S. to transform their jeans into accessories they can love again, keeping denim out of landfills and from being dumped in other countries.

Every year, people in the US buy more than 450 million pairs of jeans. At the same time, more than 300 million pairs of jeans are landfilled in the US, and over 45 million pairs are dumped in other countries, primarily in East and West Africa.

MFC or Make Fashion Clean is a non-profit organization whose mission is to stop denim dumping through upcycling and encouraging denim consumers to reuse jeans. 

MFC’s work involves collaborating with artisans in the U.S. and Ghana via a scalable, replicable model. By using the waste hierarchy as a framework for change, MFC aims to reduce denim consumption through education and reuse jeans as upcycled bags.

The average person living in the U.S. owns more than 7 pairs of jeans. In Boston, this equates to nearly 4.8 million jeans, and across the United States, over 2.3 billion.

Growing and dying cotton requires enormous quantities of water, chemicals, and human labor. Nevertheless, consumers in the U.S. dispose of more than 450 million jeans each year. Of these, 300 million are landfilled here in the U.S. where they decompose and release methane, a greenhouse gas. They also occupy huge amounts of landfill space – approximately 17.1 million cubic feet each year. 

An additional 15% or 45 million jeans each year are recycled, usually donated to thrift stores or collection bins. Most people assume these donations are reused locally in the US. However, it turns out that more than half of denim donations are shipped abroad, primarily to West and East Africa. There, local artisans struggle to compete economically against imported secondhand clothes. Environmentally, denim makes its way into open-air dumps in Africa, which are less equipped than landfills in the U.S. to contain chemical runoff. 

This problem, in the U.S. and globally, is known simply as “denim dumping.”

MFC works to serve three sets of stakeholders: (1) artisans with limited financial resources in Ghana, (2) artisans in the U.S., and (3) denim wearers in the U.S.. 

MFC’s founding team spent a total of 4 years learning from artisans in Ghana about the challenges denim dumping poses to their businesses. MFC’s partner in Ghana, the MFI Foundation, was founded in dialogue with MFC and is operated by local management and leadership. The two organizations communicate regularly. The MFI Foundation is an integrated workplace that employs women with disabilities, parents with children with disabilities, and other disadvantaged workers in Ghana.

In 2019, MFC also started to work with an independently owned small business partner in Lowell, MA, who seeks to create living wage jobs for artisans in the U.S. to bring back manufacturing to the country.

Finally, MFC has conducted extensive market research to understand the desires of denim wearers in the U.S.. Through this research, MFC identified an environmental motivation among these consumers to keep denim out of landfills. However, most denim wearers lack the skills to upcycle denim themselves. 

This is where MFC comes in.

Upcycle Jeans with MFC is an upcycling service that allows denim wearers in the U.S. to drop off or mail in their favorite pairs of jeans that they no longer wear. Customers then choose from several tote bag and backpack designs and decide which customized environmental message they would like painted on their bag. A month later, they receive a custom-made upcycled denim bag in the mail made from their own jeans, which they can love all over again while carrying a positive environmental message, reminding them to live and shop sustainably. Customers who do not wish to send in their own denim can also choose from several hand-crafted bags made in Ghana from jeans that were rescued and upcycled there.

MFC or Make Fashion Clean is a non-profit organization based in Minnesota, USA whose mission is to stop denim dumping through upcycling and encouraging denim consumers to reuse jeans. MFC’s work against denim dumping occurs in the U.S. and Ghana, and its theory of change is aligned with the five tiers of the waste hierarchy: (1) reduce, (2) reuse, (3) recycle, (4) recover energy, and (5) landfill. 

In the U.S., MFC has developed an upstream solution to denim dumping, concentrating on the first and second tiers of the waste hierarchy, which are reducing and helping consumers reuse materials. MFC works to reduce consumption of denim through educational efforts targeted at youth and young adults to reduce their denim consumption in half. Projects include teach-ins with high schoolers about denim dumping and targeted social media campaigns. To help consumers reuse denim, MFC operates its upcycling service through its manufacturing partner in Lowell, MA, which is an independently owned business that seeks to provide living wages to artisans. MFC oversees the productdesign, quality control, and transportation of denim between the customer and the manufacturer.

MFC was originally founded to support the Matilda Flow Inclusion (MFI) Foundation, a non-governmental organization based in Greater Accra, Ghana that employs artisans with limited economic means who are most affected by denim dumping. MFC partners with MFI to create upcycled handbags from secondhand denim in Ghana’s markets. This work fits into the second tier of the waste hierarchy. Since denim has already been exported to Ghana, MFC’s work in Ghana is a downstream solution.

MFC’s approach and subsequent cross-purpose solutions are truly innovative on a number of practical and strategic ways (our employment practices for marginalized women with disabilities, denim jeans upcycling model and products, environmental stewardship and advocacy, etc). MFC practices ‘Good Disruption’ in its upstream solution to denim dumping, concentrating on the first and second tiers of the waste hierarchy, which reduce and help consumers reuse materials. Disruption for the sake of disruption is not innovative, but good disruption creates processes which align and support the new circular economy markets and add value networks. MFC embeds this in all it does (upcycling, advocacy, manufacturing, employee leadership development, etc.). MFC is part of an ecosystem that is ‘competence and ecologically improvement oriented’ for humans and our environment.  We are about values and processes that facilitate and sustain productive personal and contextual change. MFC offers new opportunities while removing threats initiated by denim manufacturing incumbents via product lines that disrupt the denim throw-away culture and industry.

The most important technologies across history both ease and span boundaries of human experience. While MFC utilizes several key technologies (behavioral and adaptive processes for individuals with disabilities in the manufacturing reuse of denim, the use social media,for expanding MFI Foundation social networks & sustainability reach, etc.), its core technology would certainly be its deep reliance and equally deep respect for the ‘Indigenous Knowledge of the MFC Artisan Workers and Craftspeople.’ MFC recognizes and amplifies indigenous knowledge because it is not only important in its own right, but is also important for the benefits it brings to the Ghanian artisans who live it and to others in our world who can learn sustainably approaches to treat others and the planet more carefully. 

MFC’s solution will address the problem because it is grounded in the theory of change of the waste hierarchy. The five tiers of the waste hierarchy are: (1) reduce, (2) reuse, (3) recycle, (4) recover energy, and (5) landfill.  

Most social enterprise solutions to waste fit entirely within tier 1 or 2. What makes MFC’s work unique is its commitment to consumption reduction, or tier 1. MFC is launching an education program aimed at reaching 2,000 youth in the next year, and 20,000 youth in the next 5 years. If half of the youth reduce their consumption of one pair of jeans per year, MFC will reduce the demand for jeans in the United States by 50,000.

MFC’s work in tier 1 overlaps with our work in tier 2. Each of MFC’s products will have a message encouraging others to stop denim waste. During the educational programs, youth will have the opportunity to design pieces of the products. This messaging through the products and educational programs will inspire a cultural change throughout the US.

In Ghana, artisans participate in four employment programs: seamstress, apprentice, clothmaker, and work from home. The work from home program serves a population who is unable to leave their homes due to limited mobility. These individuals create beads and make knitted products from their homes. The challenges faced by Ghanaian artisans are largely economic, and the work supporting them is based in economic improvement.

In Ghana, there are currently 10 people hired by the MFI Foundation. 80% of the employees are women and 70% are persons with disabilities. There are three full time seamstresses who are compensated fairly for their work, and three apprentices who study artisanal and business skills. There are two clothmakers at the moment, and there have been an additional five graduates up to this point, who are currently running their own microbusinesses. An MFC board member was recently awarded a grant from American Councils to add two new participants to the work from home program. Under this grant, the participants will be able to expand their capacities in new products and artistic design. While the number of jobs created under MFI are moderate in quantity, they are robust in quality. MFI is committed to paying a living wage and providing healthcare benefits to its employees, often persons who faced unemployment prior to hire with MFI.  

In the US, MFC aims to sell 1,000 upcycled products by 2020, thereby reaching 1,000 people through product sales within the next year. In 2024, MFC is projected to produce and sell 40,000 upcycled products, engaging an equal number of people. For production, MFC will begin with hiring one artisan in the US, and by 2024 will employ 40. 

In addition to people reached by product sales, youth in the US will also be reached by the education program. Within a year, MFC aims to engage 2,000 youth, and within five years, 20,000 youth.

For the next year:

MFC’s first goal is to launch a crowdfunding campaign for its tote bag and backpack manufactured in Lowell, MA to raise $20,000 and upcycle more than 500 jeans.

MFC’s second goal is to bring the Blue Circle Bag manufactured by MFI to market in the U.S. to sell 100 bags on Amazon and at least one boutique partner in Boston.

MFC’s third goal is to add two board members with expertise in circular design and financial management while cultivating relationships for MFI to also expand its board of directors with two new members.

MFC’s final goal is to grow its social media following by five times.

Over the next five years:

MFC’s first goal is to sustainably expand the MFI Foundation’s sewing program, apprenticeship program, and work from home program to two times its current scale.

MFC’s second goal is to organize an external evaluation of the MFC and MFI Foundation project through collaboration between academic researchers in Boston and Ghana to publish a replicable model.

MFC’s final goal is to upcycle more than 100 tons of denim by expanding MFC’s network of artisans and creating denim drop-off points across the U.S.

MFC’s work is novel for its direct-to-customer approach to upcycling, cross-cultural business model, inclusion of marginalized populations who are often excluded from employment programs, and use of circular materials throughout its processes. As a result, the project has navigated and will continue to navigate barrier.

For the next year:

MFC’s first barrier is growing its social media following and increasing customer engagement by cutting through the considerable noise of fast fashion brands.

MFC’s second barrier is organizing state-side production and marketing initiatives largely through the efforts of unpaid board members and student interns.

MFC’s third barrier is instituting quality control procedures across its upcycling partners in Ghana and Massachusetts to ensure customers receive consistent products.

Over the next five years:

MFC’s first barrier is ensuring that it generates sufficient revenue from state-side production to allow for hiring of marketing and management staff.

MFC’s second barrier is drawing new dedicated talent to fill key board member and advisory positions as founding team members move to new roles.

MFC’s third barrier is differentiating and protecting its tote bag and backpack designs to maintain its place within the market as circular accessory options may multiply as the circular economy movement gains steam.

MFC’s final barrier is continuing to balance its environmental and social missions and to maintain a unified vision for collaboration with the MFI Foundation in Ghana as it continues to grow its local leadership team.

For the next year:

Barrier #1 (social media): MFC plans to recruit an advisory council member with expertise in marketing and branding and also work with Boston College practicum students each semester to fill a social media internship for MFC. MFC will also continue to conduct research of other competitor’s social media feeds.

Barrier #2 (team capacity): MFC plans to add two active board members and double its team of student interns by fall 2019.

Barrier #3 (quality control): MFC plans to integrate technology within its manufacturing processes so that team members and customers can inspect products as they are being made, improving quality control.

Over the next five years:

Barrier #1 (revenue): MFC plans to prioritize fundraising within its board of directors through annual fundraising goals. Successful storytelling over social media will create the brand awareness necessary to help MFC’s products reach customers.

Barrier #2 (recruitment): MFC seeks to position itself as a thought-leader in the space of circular economy for inclusion of marginalized populations. MFC’s board member will seek speaking engagements at conferences and prioritize attending conferences in this space to network with like-minded thinkers and develop a pipeline of talent.

Barrier #3 (differentiating): MFC will develop signature messages and designs painted on its bag which it will trademark.

Barrier #4 (balancing missions): MFC will priorize supporting the MFI Foundation in developing its local leadership team, so that long-term, MFC and MFI Foundation can hold honest, equitable conversations between leadership teams to balance social and environmental missions.

The Make Fashion Clean leadership team is made up of five people representing the fields of social work, developmental psychology, public health, and sustainable enterprise. The leadership team includes three board members: Ava Floyd, Dr. Julia DeVoy, and Chika Egbuzie, and two volunteer acting directors: Dielle Lundberg and Sarah Bibbey. MFC also has three advisory council members: Meagan Spencer, Himanshu Ashar, and Dr. Reuben Addo who are subject experts in business, non-profit work, and Ghanaian context. The director of MFI Foundation in Ghana, Matilda Lartey, has worked as an artisan and business owner for 18 years.

MFC considers dismantling of and deliverance from oppressive and exploitative structures, including those that are economic, racist, sexist, ableist, and damaging to our planet -as its core goals. MFC’s leadership team is a diverse group of individuals with backgrounds in public health, social work, political science, and applied psychology. These fields share the goal of working toward social justice. Practically, both of MFC’s Acting Directors have spent two years living, working, and studying in Ghana. MFC is guided by an advisory council of experts on business and cultural topics, and growing this council to include sustainability experts.  

MFC’s team is uniquely positioned to engage in this work, especially through longstanding relationships with the MFI Foundation in Ghana. The executive director of MFI also functions as a part of the MFC team, providing insight as a member of a community directly affected by denim dumping. Further, MFC’s team has proven successful in competitions and captured media attention.

MFC distinguishes itself from other denim upcycling change, social justice enterprises by placing goals and emphasis on personal, organizational, environmental, and social systemic changes in order to impact more people across the globe. MFC fosters this both directly and indirectly through the business organization, its advocacy work for disability, women’s, and healthcare rights, employee leadership development programming, and research partnerships with universities and foundations. MFC views these are core mechanisms to amplify and assist in the ability to scale and replicate the model and solutions.

Make Fashion Clean was originally founded to support the Matilda Flow Inclusion foundation (MFI) in Ghana to employ artisans, including people with disabilities, affected by denim dumping. Now MFC primarily partners with MFI to provide international market access and visibility to local Ghanaian artisans who struggle to compete with the influx of second hand imports. Financially, MFC supports MFI for artisan salaries and materials. Whereas, MFI provides MFC with the denim products to promote upcycling and repurposing.

More recently, MFC has developed a relationship with an upcycling company in Lowell, MA. This partnership will allow MFC to develop its downstream solution to denim dumping in the US, creating jobs for local artisans and diverting jeans from ending up in Africa. 

MFC is a 501c3 non-profit organization that uses a social enterprise model to generate sustainable environmental and social impacts in the U.S. and Ghana. MFC’s primary activities involve supporting artisans who upcycle denim and organizing educational initiatives to encourage consumers to reuse denim. 

In MFC’s model, MFC sells upcycled bags made from rescued denim to sustain its upcycling programs. Customers can choose between purchasing bags made from denim rescued and upcycled in Ghana or having a bag upcycled in the U.S. out of their own denim that they send in or drop off.

As a non-profit organization, MFC aims to breakeven on its sale of products made by its partner in Ghana. 100% of proceeds from these products goes back to sustaining the upcycling programs in Ghana that provide employment to artisans. 

To generate further revenue to support MFC’s organizational growth including eventual marketing staff in the U.S., MFC is starting production with a partner in Lowell, MA in 2019. Revenue from these products will cover the cost of upcycling programs in the U.S. while generating additional funds to increase the sustainability of MFC in the U.S. and expand programs in Ghana.

MFC’s target customer for its upcycled denim products is the accessory consumer who cares about the environment and is interested in customization.

MFC sells products on its website, through its social media platforms, and on Amazon. As MFC continues to generate publicity, it will partner with small fashion boutiques, starting in Greater Boston.

MFC was founded in June 2017. Since its incorporation, MFC has relied on a mix of grants and donations for seed funding to support the growth of the MFI Foundation in Ghana, its first upcycling partner. This pilot approach has allowed MFC and MFI Foundation to develop capacity gradually, learn about the sustainability of its programs, and undertake extensive product development work and market testing.

MFC’s vision for financial sustainability is for its operational expenses including at least one paid marketing staff member in the U.S. to be funded by the sale of upcycled denim products by the end of 2020. The introduction of its new state-side upcycling partner is key to achieving this goal because it transforms MFC into an upcycling and slow fashion service where customers can send in their used denim and receive a sturdy, customized bag back in return. By reducing the barriers posed by international shipping, MFC’s manufacturing approach becomes a scalable model that can be replicated with artisan groups across the U.S..

This financial sustainability plan allows the MFI Foundation in Ghana to also focus on developing diverse income streams locally. In addition to producing a small range of high-end, hand-crafted bags for MFC to sell in the U.S., the MFI Foundation will spend at least 50% of its manufacturing time making products for local markets. This will allow for greater long-term sustainability, and it will ultimately empower artisans in Ghana with greater ownership over their work, designs, and business decisions.

First, MFC seeks to leverage Solve’s network of experts in the circular economy space to gain mentorship around its business model including areas of design, collection of denim, distribution, and marketing to find areas to improve efficiencies in MFC’s model that will allow the organization to scale.

Secondly, over the next three years, MFC seeks to build a cross-sectoral coalition that includes retailers who sell denim, artisans in the United States and Ghana, environmental educators, thrift stores and textile recyclers, and academic researchers – all united around the issue of denim dumping. Solve will help MFC develop these connections and work through how MFC can create value and collaborate effectively and equitably with each of these entities.

Finally, MFC is joining Solve for community. MFC participated in a social innovation accelerator in 2018, and although the experience was positive, the program lacked expertise in many areas relating to circular design processes. As a Boston-based team with a presence in several-states in the United States and in Ghana, we seek to discover other teams around the world who are passionate about the circular economy and supporting community-based solutions through the tools of social enterprise.

MFC seeks to get connected with influencers in the circular economy space. We hope to learn from other brands and teams who are using social media to engage with their customers and build collaborations with other brands making a positive difference for the environment.

Some organizations and individuals that MFC seeks to partner with in the future:

#1. Sustainable fashion boutiques in the United States (HighStyle Flagstaff, Red Thread Sewing, House of Talents)

#2. Sustainable fashion organizers and influencers in Ghana (African Fashion Fund, Fashion Revolution Ghana)

#3. Environmental (STEM) educators in the United States (Tynkertopia, Sustainable Communities Program at NAU, Boston College Lynch School of Education, Boston Mayor’s Office and the Greenovate Initiative)

#4. Circular economy thought leaders (House of Denim Foundation, Ellen Macarthur Foundation, Women’s Cooperative at HEPAC Nogales)

#5. Academic researchers with expertise in impact evaluation (University of Ghana, Boston College, Olin College of Engineering, Boston University School of Public Health, University of Michigan)

MFC’s business model and manufacturing process presents an innovative, scalable response to the problem of denim dumping worldwide. This solution begins with upcycling partnerships to generate artisan jobs and keep denim out of landfills through repurposing. The solution is circular - creating new products from discarded ones, and utilizing scraps in other pieces. MFC’s materials management strategy is zero waste. Secondly, MFC is developing educational programs to encourage youth to reuse denim, preventing waste in the first place. The programs will give youth the opportunity to create pieces of MFC’s upcycled products, engaging in painting and sewing technologies.

If our team is selected for the GM Prize on Circular Economy, we will use the prize in three ways. First, we will utilize partnerships with STEM education programs in the US to launch hands-on denim upcycling and environmental health education workshops for youth. This will drive awareness for MFC and the movement to upcycle denim generally. Second, we will provide internship stipends for two new part-time team members to assist MFC in meeting its business development needs. This includes a fashion design intern who can assist with product development and testing, as well as a social media intern to reach new customers. Finally, we will use a portion of the funding to ship upcycled products made at the MFI Foundation in Ghana to boutiques and vendors in the United States.

MFC has engaged in critical work around gender on multiple levels. First, MFC supports the MFI Foundation in Ghana. MFI Foundation is led by a woman, Matilda Lartey, who has participated in various types of community leadership over the years, including several years as a leader for a women’s microfinance group. Matilda inspires other women to lead through MFI training programs, which engage the community in new skills. 80% of the employees at MFI Foundation are women, and the majority of these women are at the intersection of gender and disability. MFC's investment in MFI has resulted in the creation of new upcycling technology.

Second, MFC’s future work will create living wages for artisans. In the US, 70% of sewing artisans are women. MFC’s partner Lowell, MA, a shop using upcycling technology, is dedicated to paying fair wages to all employees.  

Third, MFC’s leadership team is made up entirely of women and non-binary people (women+). Participating in the MFC process has given voice to a diverse group of women+ from across the United States. As gender minorities ourselves, we believe that our leadership team has insight into working alongside women worldwide.

If MFC is awarded the Innovation for Women Prize, the money will be invested into marketing and creation of upcycled products in both Ghana and the US. This will contribute to women - whether employed in Lowell or in Accra - earning living wages and engaging in the creative economy.