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 in the last two years. Instead of disposing of this waste or sending it for recycling, we decided to reuse it directly – and from it, a whole part of our product portfolio was born.

From residual material to independent product

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

For us, the answer wasn't "throw it away" or "make decorations," but: develop new, functional products. It was important to us that the resulting products not only look pretty but also serve a real purpose – functionality is paramount for us even in upcycling.

Three examples show what this looks like in practice:

The Moon Strap Pouch deliberately comes in unique colors, meaning random color combinations. This is not a compromise, but a conscious decision: This way, virtually every fabric remnant can be used without us having to meticulously 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 Moon Strap Pouches

Our Bag Collection is specifically adapted to the available fabric remnants. Instead of planning first and then ordering material, we look at what remnants are available and design the bags to match.

The Moon Disc, our frisbee, goes one step further: Even the finest fabric scraps, which are far too small for larger products, are incorporated into the rim of the disc. This way, even the very last, smallest remnant is 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 taking a look at the scale of the issue. Globally, around 92 million tons of textile waste are generated annually – a large part of which ends up in landfills or is incinerated.¹ A significant portion 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 backdrop, it becomes clear why even the relatively small amount of two containers matters for an operation of our size – and why we are convinced that every approach to meaningfully reuse 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 largely remains; it is creatively upgraded instead of being broken down.

This is also why upcycling is considered particularly resource-efficient: The elaborate, energy-intensive process of breaking down and re-processing is completely eliminated.⁵ This is precisely our experience – the more fabric is actually reused as fabric, instead of being broken down or burned, the better the environmental footprint. In the industry, fabric scraps are often only used as filling material, which is essentially a form of downcycling.⁵ We consciously go a step further and process our remnants as full-fledged sheet material into independent products.

The honest part: Effort instead of efficiency

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

Nevertheless, we stick with it. 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 articles in 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 ↩, accessed on 10.07.2026
2. European Environment Agency (EEA): Management of used and waste textiles in Europe's circular economy ↩, accessed on 10.07.2026 
3. Textile Exchange: Materials Market Report 2025 ↩, accessed on 10.07.2026 
4. Verbraucherzentrale.de: What is upcycling? And when does it make sense? ↩, accessed on 10.07.2026
5. MOOT: Upcycling: Re-Design instead of discarding ↩, accessed on 10.07.2026