The New Passion for Recycled Fashion with Junk Kouture’s Katie Brill

Pulp Nonfiction

Welcome to Pulp Nonfiction: The Paper and Packaging Podcast!

Our guest this month is Katie Brill, Sr. VP Global PR & Communications at Junk Kouture. Katie offers us a behind the runway view of their student fashion show competitions and how they nurture children’s creativity and confidence, why upcycled materials, like paper, are experiencing renewed popularity in apparel design, how sustainable clothes are starting to positively impact the fast fashion space, and much more!

Katie is a former contestant winner of Junk Kouture with her design made from orange peel 'Re' Juicing is Ap'Peeling' in 2012 and now is part of the Junk Kouture team as SVP of PR and Comms. The experience helped create her passion for environmental sustainability and she is committed to expanding the mission of Junk Kouture and to inspire more young creatives.

Junk Kouture is a creative program for youth that promotes the importance of sustainability. Highlighting the fact that what we view as ‘junk’ can be recycled in useful and impactful ways, it challenges young people to create beautiful and interesting fashion outfits out of materials that are normally thrown away. Founded in Ireland in 2010 by tech entrepreneur, Troy Armour, the competition has recruited 100,000 participants to date, produced 15,000 distinctive designs, saved 40,000kg of waste from landfill and amazed packed crowds at 60 sold-out arena shows.

In 2021, Junk Kouture chose to expand globally with a 10-year ambition to enrich the lives of a billion young people through creativity and sustainability. This progressive competition is free to enter and open to all students between the ages of 13 and 18. Participants may join as individuals or in groups of up to three. Designed to create an inclusive community, educate people about the importance of protecting our planet and promoting creativity, students of all backgrounds and levels of experience are welcome to join.

This podcast is brought to you by Sustana Fiber, a leading producer of FSC®-certified sustainable recycled fibers. At our facilities in De Pere, Wisconsin in the United States and Lévis, Quebec in Canada, we use automated proprietary processes to transform recovered paper into high-quality recycled fiber for use in printing papers, tissue grades and formed molded fiber packaging. We also produce EnviroLife®, a sustainable recycled fiber compliant with FDA standards for food service packaging. Learn more about how our products and manufacturing practices support the circular economy at www.sustanafiber.com.

Hosted by Sustana Fiber’s Greg Johnson, Director of New Business Development, and Dr. Marta Pazos, a leading sustainable packaging materials scientist, this monthly video podcast series features fascinating discussions on several trending topics involving sustainability.