VOA慢速英语:服装设计师使用再利用材料来保护环境

Clothing designers are turning to unusual plants and used materials to make products that better use natural resources.

More people are paying closer attention to how the production of clothing affects the environment. However, some experts say that the idea of "buy and throw away," still rules when it comes to clothes.

This is true -- although some famous people support a movement to reuse and recycle clothing.

Actress Maggie Q created a line of clothes from recycled fabrics. She is among activists who believe more can be done to waste less.

She says she feels "sick" about "fast fashion" -- low-cost clothes that can be worn once, then thrown away.

The British design team, Vin + Omi, looks for creative ways to make the industry more sustainable. Their clothing is worn by former first lady Michelle Obama and singers Beyonce and Lady Gaga.

The team found latex from Malaysia. But, when they discovered the conditions for the work there were bad, they bought the operation.

In their office in the English countryside, they grow unusual crops for cloth development. These include chestnuts from trees and horseradish.

Their latest line of clothes includes ones made from nettle plants, alpaca hair and recycled plastic from paint containers.

Another English designer, Zoe Corsellis, keeps her carbon footprint low by manufacturing her clothes in London. The cloth comes from the United Kingdom and Germany. She makes the cloth from wood products, sea waste and something called "peace silk." It is considered a better method for silk worms than the traditional silk production process.

Belgian designer Sebastiaan de Neubourg is recycling plastic bottles, car parts and machines used in homes. Plastic waste is collected and torn into small pieces for a 3D printer.

"Waste, I believe, is design failure," he said.

More famous people are also playing a part in the movement. They are buying vintage - or old - clothes used by people long ago. Others wear a set of clothes more than once.

Fee Gilfeather is a sustainability expert with the noNPRofit group Oxfam. She said there is hope that more will be done.

"The textile industry is getting close to working out how to do fiber-to-fiber recycling," she said. Such recycling takes clothes that are no longer wanted or needed and breaks them down into raw materials to make new clothing.

She said the industry needs to move faster, because carbon emissions from the textile manufacturers are predicted to increase 60 percent by 2050.

Some fast-fashion industry leaders, including Zara and H&M stores, have launched clothing take-back plans aimed at recycling old clothes. But for now, recycling and a zero-waste goal is mostly a small part of the worldwide industry.

I'm Anne Ball.

Lizzie Knight wrote this story for the Associated Press. Anne Ball adapted it for Learning English.

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