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Recycling fashion: The town turning waste into clothes - BBC News

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    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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    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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    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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    This makes us feel proud.
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    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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    About 25 tonnes every day.
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    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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    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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    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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    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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    This is a method that's been passed on
    from father to son.
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    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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    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.
Title:
Recycling fashion: The town turning waste into clothes - BBC News
Description:

Fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world. But a small town in Italy called Prato has built its fortune on transforming old scraps into new clothes, particularly knitwear and wool.

Could Prato represent a model for sustainable fashion?

Reporter: Sofia Bettiza

Editor: Sofia Bettiza

Filmed by: Paolo Patruno

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Video Language:
English
Team:
Amplifying Voices
Project:
Environment and Climate Change
Duration:
03:53

English subtitles

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