Difficulty: Summiteer (Level 3)
Many clothing brands are proud to say most of their clothes are made from recycled material.
But there is a problem with this. Clothing made of recycled material cannot be recycled again; most clothes made from recycled materials are made with plastic bottles.
Thus, most clothing waste in Europe is thrown out. Only 22 per cent is reused or recycled.
Even then, recycling clothes is complex. Clothes made from more than two fibres are regarded as unrecyclable. Those that can be recycled must be sorted by colour, and then have zips, buttons, studs and other material removed. It is often costly and labour-intensive, though pilot projects to fix this are starting in Europe.
Many experts have come to this conclusion: clothes cannot be recycled. The solution is to buy fewer clothes while repairing and reusing them as much as we can.
