IdeaAlter

“Alter” is an innovative platform that receives donated used school uniforms and recycles them into fabric to foster a healthy circulation of reusable products. It serves as a medium for students who want to utilize their uniforms after graduating, and anyone–including new students of the same school–who wants to use quality products sustainably. Through Alter, students can not only donate their uniforms that they could not find ways to use otherwise but also re-purchase products that are made out of their donated uniforms. The motivation comes from our own experience. After graduating from school, students usually have a hard time finding a particular way to handle their uniforms. So, the probable outcome for them is to just waste the uniforms. But, it is an undeniable fact that school uniforms are made out of quality fabrics. Alter is a sustainable business that directly tackles UN SDG #12, circulating production and consumption without wasting valuable resources. According to our research, there are many Asian countries whose schools have uniforms and we are experiencing this as international school students. To describe the specific operation of our idea, we aim to collect used uniforms from different schools, initially, in South Korea, then convey them to a factory that has several machines that recycle used fabric. Then, via the process of re-creating, we will be able to gain a new fabric out of used uniforms. With the new fabric, we plan to initiate a joint venture with other small-sized businesses to create different products with the fabric and naturally allow the end-consumers to reuse the used fabric. Moreover, because we are prioritizing small-sized businesses, it would be a great addition to spur the relatively disadvantaged stores, utilizing our technology as a differentiating factor. All in all, Alter overall possesses three steps of operation: 1) Collect used uniforms; 2) Recycle them into fabric; and 3) Re-create them into new products.

Our expertise lies in diverse fields from digital content creation to research. Due to the nature of this platform’s innovative approach towards UN SDG #12, Alter will be able to help various corporations and companies in the textile industry pursue a more sustainable path in their production procedures. Our experience in video making and media contribution will be able to help companies receive more profit through advertising their association with Alter and having customers acknowledge their use of recycled fabrics. Moreover, as Alter makes connections between schools, such institutions will be able to avoid responsibilities in handling the remainder of mass production.