Student sells shirts made with recycled water bottles; helping peers embrace sustainability

Sustainability is top priority for UNL student Gage Mruz, but he says you don’t have to sacrifice everything- you just need to be aware.

“Just talking about it,” Mruz said. “Talk about recycling, not in a pretentious way, but starting that conversation.”

Mruz, an environmental studies major at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is starting that conversation in his community with, literally, the shirt on his back.

He started a brand called Greenstain; a clothing brand that offers solutions for one of Earth’s biggest problems.

“The fashion industry is one of the top contributors of waste,” Mruz said.

He started selling t-shirts made of recycled plastic water bottles and organic cotton and tencel.

“The process is much more sustainable, it uses 70 percent less water so you save 490 gallons per t-shirt and a lot less chemicals, oils, dyes,” Mruz said.

He launched the brand a few months ago, completely on his own. He even screen printed the shirts himself at Nebraska’s Innovation Studio, until he got so many orders the senior couldn’t keep up.

He’s sold 130 shirts, recycling 750 water bottles in the process.

To make the shirts have an even greater impact, for every shirt sold he works with a company to plant a tree.

“I have partnered with a company called One Tree Planted, and they plant trees on four different continents, but with recent wildfires in California I thought it’d have the best local impact to plant trees in those areas, to help remediate the land from those wildfires.”

Mruz’s goal is to show people sustainability is possible, and small steps can make a difference.

“To instill hope in people that there are these grand problems, but there are solutions, their impact really does matter,” he said.

He however, isn’t going to be satisfied with simply taking small steps, he said.

Once Mruz gets his diploma in a few weeks, he’s committing to Greenstain full time.

“Apparel is just phase one,” he said. “It offers framework to offer other solutions as well. We could create an app that helps you save energy or create sustainable coffee.”

Through each effort, helping Nebraskan’s embrace living a little more green.

“You go out west to places like California and sustainability is a big thing out there, you see legislation saying people are required to have solar panels on their houses, recycling, composting are really big things there. I want to create that presence in Nebraska,” Mruz said. “Nebraska’s people are some of the most ethical and loyal people so I thought that’d be the best place to start.”

To support Mruz’s cause and help sustain Mother Nature with the purchase of a t-shirt, visit his website greenstain.net.

If you’re looking for other ways to be more eco-friendly, Mruz suggests recycling when you can, turning off lights, taking shorter showers and using only cold water to do laundry.