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Sophia Bettiza: Most of our clothes 
will never get recycled.

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99% will end up here,
dumped and burned in landfill.

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MW: Our Earth at this point is not capable
of absorbing the huge amount of clothing

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that is produced each year.

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SB: But what if all those wasted clothes

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could be saved and turned
into something else?

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I've come to a town in Italy called Prato.

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This place has mastered a method
to transform old scraps into new clothes.

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FT: This makes us feel proud.

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SB: What happens here is unique.

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There are hundreds of companies 
in this small district

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and each specializes 
in one specific aspect of the process,

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whether it's spinning, 
weaving or designing.

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And today, incredibly,

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this town says it processes 15%
of all recycled clothes in the world.

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So this is your shirt.

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If it's too old for the charity shop,
it gets sent for recycling.

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Here, it's sorted by colour,
torn apart, washed,

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and then the new recycled material
is taken and transformed

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to make new clothes with minimum waste.

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That was very quick.

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Let's go through the process again.

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You donate clothes.

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They arrive here 
from lots of different countries.

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All the garments 
that can be sold second-hand

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are taken to this company nearby.

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Here, not only are they
separated by colour,

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but also by material.

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Think these used to be trousers!

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How many clothes do you recycle here?

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FT: About 25 tonnes every day.

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SB: The clothes are put in this.

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It's called a carbonizing machine -

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it eliminates impurities from the wool.

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Then, they go through this.

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It's like a giant washing machine.

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They're shredded, cleaned and dried.

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This is the final result -

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your old clothes have been transformed
into these fine, fluffy wool fibres.

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So at the end of the process,

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this is what the new recycled
materials look like.

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They're placed here
until a fashion brand buys them

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and uses them to make clothes.

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Some people might say
that you are using trash to make clothes.

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FB(Owner): This might have been
the case a few years ago.

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The word "rubbish" was an insult.

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But now, many brands... 
they buy my products because of it -

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because they know that reusing resources 
is going to save the planet.

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SB: Recycling wool is great
for the environment.

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Co2 emissions are more than halved

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compared to when clothes
are made from new material.

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MW(FashionRevolution): We have
an immediate impact on animal welfare,

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because you reduce the stress
that you have to put on the animals

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to get the wool,

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almost complete elimination of dyes

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because the way the wool is recycled
is an assortment by colour.

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SB: This is a method that's been
passed on from father to son.

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MW: The culture in Prato

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is the kind of culture that we need
across the entire fashion industry

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because it is based
on collaboration that are local,

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but are capable of showing how,

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if these things are taken
into a national or global scale,

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the entire industry could benefit.

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SB: The people of this town
were forced to recycle clothes

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because they couldn't afford the new ones.

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Now their methods, which have been
honed over the past hundred years,

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could offer a way forward
for a more sustainable fashion world.

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Subtitles by Livia Cefaloni
Review by Carol Wang