With the help of sewing machines, scissors and some hand braiding techniques, 16-year-old besties Olivia Liu and Sophia Liu are doing their part to chip away at the 92 million tons of global textile waste produced each year.
And, there are more happy dogs in the South Bay because of it.
The local high schoolers spent the dog days of summer running Pupcycled, a nonprofit where volunteers collect discarded fabric from community members and transform them into braided rope and bone-shaped dog toys, which are later distributed for free to no-kill shelters or rescues in the Bay Area.
Started in May by the San Jose and Palo Alto teens, the nonprofit has pumped out more than 900 toys and salvaged more than 1,000 articles of old clothing. Half of the toys have already been donated to organizations like the Schwartz Family Foundation, Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter and Pets in Need.
Pupcycled accepts a variety of scrap fabrics, clothing, towels, bed and pillow sheets for their toys — all of which happen to be the main materials that make up textile waste, according to the U.S Environmental Protection Agency. People can drop off the fabrics at Pupcycled’s donation bin inside the Cupertino Library.
The nonprofit also accepts monetary donation through their website. All proceeds go towards keeping their operations afloat and purchasing toy-making supplies, like thread, sewing machines, extra donation bins and stuffing.
To keep the momentum going, Pupcycled partners with the San Jose and Palo Alto Public Library to host weekly toy-making events at several of their branches. Anyone, regardless of their sewing or braiding ability, are free to come and help.
“We thought why don’t we bring Pupcycled to libraries?” said Olivia, a senior at Leland High School in San Jose, “Then people from our communities can come together and work on this and do something good for our local shelters.”
Their free service provides much-needed financial relief to some local animal shelters, which, according to officials, are getting more animals in the post-pandemic era faster than they can provide for them.
The increase in animals at the shelters comes from a variety of factors — people who are going back to work in-person and can no longer care for their pets, rising cost of living and veterinarian care prices and a housing shortage that allows landlords to prefer tenants without pets. The nation’s shelter population grew by nearly a quarter-million animals in 2023, according to Shelter Animals County, a database for shelter statistics.
Loree Levy-Schwartz, the founder of the Schwartz Family Foundation, said she has noticed more dogs in need. The San Jose nonprofit provides medical treatment, supportive care and adoption services for mainly small breeds. The foundation was the the first recipient of the Lius’s homemade dog toys, which came in a box of 25. “It’s excellent, they are doing a great job,” Levy-Schwartz said.
The foundation typically orders a bag of small dog toys on Amazon at a cost of around $30 for 25 toys. Levy-Schwartz and her crew can’t afford to spend precious donation dollars on toys from brand-name pet stores, where such items can cost more than five dollars per toy.
For every adopted dog, the foundation provides an affordable mini care package for the owners to help them adjust to their new pets. The Schwartz tote bags are filled with essentials like a blanket, food, a leash and best of all — a Pupcycled toy for the dogs to play with. “We want them to have an easy start,” Levy-Schwartz said.
For Sophia, a senior at Palo Alto High School, the most rewarding part about operating Pupcycled is seeing the positive reactions of the recipients and volunteers.
“It’s really rewarding being able to see people’s reactions to the toys and to the events,” she said. “It’s really nice seeing people having a good time, enjoying what they are doing and doing something good in the meantime.”