Billie Eilish giving unsold merch new life by upcycling 400,000 T-shirts

Ocean eye-d Billie Eilish is standing up for sustainability, joining the movement of earth-conscious celebs as she demands music labels take accountability of fashion waste by beginning to upcycle unsold merchandise.

The 23-year-old singer has long been involved with sustainability initiatives, known to have forked out for public transportation costs to cover fans' journeys to her global concerts.

Billie has also opted for recycled plastics when producing her vinyl's in the past and even performed at solar-powered festivals, showing full support. Her new mission: to push label Universal Music Group to "upcycle" the concert merchandise that remains unsold.

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Eilish and her mother, Maggie Baird, have been joined by Bravado in pushing this initiative, promising to transform the huge warehouse of T-shirts and other unsold items, gathering dust over the decades, into new products for fans worldwide.

Stating the warehouse's location to be Nashville, USA, Billboard reported Maggie's concerns, the mother of the singer-songwriter siblings saying: "We are drowning in clothes on this planet, much of which is in landfills, much of which is shipped to other countries to pollute their waters and their land".

She added: "We have to be extremely thoughtful about what merch gets put out in the world," asking "why does it exist, how is it made, and what happens to it in its second life?"

As a result of Billie and her mother's help, Bravado, a global producer of merchandise, has sponsored the campaign by agreeing to send a massive sum of 400,000 T-shirts from Nashville to Morocco. There, the deadstock will be repurposed by Hallotex.

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The Spanish clothing designer and manufacturer has confirmed it will begin this process by completely deconstructing a large portion of the shirts by spinning them into cotton yarn, ready to be remade into new shirts. And for those that cannot be recycled in this way, the company have planned to shred the items into housing insulation fabric.

Bravado have stated that at the end of this process, the company will be left with an impressive 280,000 remade shirts, ready to become artist merch for Autumn in Europe. Already, the option for remade shirts are available on the artist's online store.

On Billie's official Facebook account, she posted: "To celebrate Earth Day, Billie has teamed up with 3 rising businesses that are leading the charge in the sustainable production space. These capsules showcase how style, innovation, and creativity can coexist in the things we make, while being mindful of the impact on our planet. Shop the capsules now on Billie’s store billieeilish.lnk.to/upcycled".

Her mother Maggie commented on this waste-conscious development, saying: "We asked for [more sustainable options] even before she was big. It was a little bit like pushing a boulder up a hill for a long time". She also stated that "Billie has teamed up with three rising businesses that are leading the charge in the sustainable production space,” on her website, affirming that "these capsules showcase how style, innovation, and creativity can coexist in the things we make, while being mindful of the impact on our planet".

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