From Remnants to Products: How New Creations Emerge from Hammock Fabric Scraps

Part 1 of our series on sustainability at Ticket to the Moon

Two containers. That's how much fabric waste has accumulated from the production of our hammocks over the past two years. Instead of disposing of this waste or sending it for recycling, we decided to reuse it directly – and from it, an entire part of our product portfolio has emerged.

From Waste Material to Standalone Product

It all started with the question: What actually happens to the fabric left over from cutting our hammocks?

Our answer was not "throw it away" or "make decorations," but rather: develop new, functional products. It was important to us that the resulting products not only look good but also serve a real purpose – functionality is our top priority, even with upcycling.

Three examples illustrate what this looks like in practice:

The Moonstrap Pouch deliberately comes in unique colors, meaning random color combinations. This is not a compromise but a conscious decision: this way, practically every fabric scrap can be used without us having to painstakingly sort by color beforehand. In general, unique products make a lot of sense for us in upcycling – they allow us to quickly and easily utilize remnants.

You can find more information about our unique products here.

Our Moonstrap Pouches

Our Bag Collection is specifically adapted to the existing fabric remnants. Instead of planning first and then ordering material, we look at what remnant fabric is available and develop the bags accordingly.

The Moon Disc, our frisbee, goes a step further: even the finest fabric sections, which are too small for larger products, are incorporated into the rim of the disc. This way, even the last, smallest remnant is still put to good use.

How Big Is the Problem in the Textile Industry Really?

To understand why this is important to us, it's worth looking at the scale of the issue. Globally, around 92 million tons of textile waste are generated annually – a large portion of which ends up in landfills or is incinerated.¹ A significant part of this is already generated during production itself – for example, as offcuts or unsold goods.²

At the same time, global textile production continues to grow: worldwide fiber production has more than doubled since 2000, while less than one percent of the global fiber market actually comes from textile-to-textile recycling.³

This is precisely where we come in. Against this background, it becomes clear why even the comparatively small amount of two containers matters for a company of our size – and why we are convinced that every approach to meaningfully reusing production remnants makes a difference.

Why Upcycling Is Different from Recycling

The terms upcycling and recycling are often used synonymously but refer to very different processes. In classic recycling, material is broken down into its components and industrially reprocessed – however, quality is often lost, which is then referred to as downcycling.⁴ In upcycling, on the other hand, the original form of the material is largely retained; it is creatively enhanced rather than broken down.

This is also why upcycling is considered particularly resource-efficient: the complex, energy-intensive process of breakdown and reprocessing is completely eliminated.⁵ This is exactly our experience – the more fabric is actually reused as fabric, instead of being broken down or incinerated, the better the overall balance. In the industry, fabric remnants are often merely used as filling material, which is essentially a form of downcycling.⁶ We consciously go a step further and process our remnants as full-fledged flat material into standalone products.

The Honest Part: Effort Instead of Efficiency

What is often overlooked in all of this is: this process is elaborate. Our high upcycling rate is only possible because we cut a lot manually – every piece of remnant fabric is different; there are no standardized cutting patterns like with new material. This takes time, and it is difficult to accurately calculate how much material and resources we actually save as a result, because we don't weigh and account for every single piece. The contribution margin for these products is consequently not as good as for products made from new material.

Nevertheless, we push through. Because our conviction is simple: it is always better to reuse fabric as fabric than to send it for recycling or even dispose of it – even if it takes more work and is less profitable.

What's Next

This is just the beginning. In the next posts of this series, we will show what else we do for sustainability at Ticket to the Moon – from our plastic-free packaging to the insulation of our underquilts made from recycled PET.

Sources

1. UN Environment Programme (UNEP) – Sustainable fashion to take centre stage on Zero Waste Day ↩, retrieved on 2026-07-10
2. European Environment Agency (EEA) – Management of used and waste textiles in Europe's circular economy ↩, retrieved on 2026-07-10
3. Textile Exchange – Materials Market Report 2025 ↩, retrieved on 2026-07-10
4. Wikipedia – "Upcycling" ↩, retrieved on 2026-07-24
5. Juanga-Labayen, J. P., Labayen, I. V., & Yuan, Q. (2022), "A Review on Textile Recycling Practices and Challenges" ↩, Textiles (MDPI), retrieved on 2026-07-24
6. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum – "Recycling Fashion's Remnants: Residential and Commercial Textile Waste" ↩, retrieved on 2026-07-24