Have you heard how popular clothing made from ocean plastic has become? For example, Pharrell Williams has collaborated with Bionic Yarn to make jeans from ocean waste. And Nike has been producing a clothing line made of recycled polyester since 2010. This idea is not new. In 1993, Tyson Toussant and Tim Coombs of the Patagonia brand introduced their first polyester from recycled soda bottles. However, it is impossible to recycle plastic endlessly. It begins to lose its properties gradually, and in the end, there is a need to throw it away.

It is rare that a product consists only of recycled material due to its low quality. More often, new material is added to the recycled material. For example, to give color to the plastic during processing, it is dyed with chemical dyes. Recycling requires much less energy than conventional polyester production but the same as fossil fuel. Microplastics are also separated from fibers during washing. As of today, there are no studies that prove that recycled polyester is safe for our bodies.

It would be much healthier for your body and nature to make conscious choices when buying clothes. Here's your list:

- do I feel comfortable in those clothes?
- is the fabric natural?
- matches most items in my wardrobe?
- will I be able to wear it for a long time?

If the answers are yes, then you can confidently buy the product. If in doubt, it is better not to buy. After a day, you will forget about it.

Conventional cotton requires a large amount of resources. An influential example is the history of the Aral Sea on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The Aral Sea was once considered the fourth-largest lake in the world. In the 1950s, the water of the Aral Sea began to be used for cotton plantations. And since cotton was grown with the principles of monoculture, it needed to be watered more than organic cotton; over time, the soil became infertile and began to hold moisture poorly. As a result, it almost completely dried up in 2014. The locals lost everything. Fish from rivers and lakes were the main source of food for them.

It turns out that chemicals were accumulating on the bottom of the Aral Sea because they were used in large quantities in neighboring cotton plantations, and these chemicals were poured into the sea together with water. As the bottom of the lake became exposed due to the shallowing of the water, the chemicals accumulated in the bottom began to travel several kilometers in the form of dust and wind, which later led to diseases among local residents. Imagine: 10,000 liters of water is needed to produce 1 kg of cotton. 16% of the world's pesticides go to cotton cultivation. To soften and dye the finished fabric, you need chemicals and a lot of water as well. Պատկերացրու՝ 1 կգ բամբակի արտադրման համար անհրաժեշտ է 10 հազար լիտր ջուր։ Ամբողջ աշխարհի պեստիցիդների 16%-ը գնում է բամբակի աճեցմանը։ Պատրաստի գործվածքը փափկեցնելու և ներկելու համար պետք են քիմիկատներ եւ շատ ջուր։

If you remember, you need to change the plants growing on it (crop rotation) to get healthy soil. Thus, the soil is enriched with useful nutrients and does not need chemical fertilizers. Healthy soil collects and stores water. Therefore, organic cotton does not need to be watered as intensively as conventional cotton. Organic cotton is usually replaced by legumes such as beans, peas, or soybeans. When the time comes, the cotton is harvested. To facilitate picking, chemical fertilizers are usually used to speed up the shedding of regularcotton. In the case of organic, the farmer simply waits for the cotton to fall on its own under the influence of environmental factors.

Unfortunately, if you buy a mass-produced, regular cotton product, it's not environmentally sustainable either. However, the story is different with organic cotton. The process of growing and preparing it is significantly different from ordinary cotton. Organic cotton is grown from natural seeds without GMOs and antifungal chemicals, fungicides. And conventional, industrially produced cotton is grown from seeds heavily treated with pesticides. It turns out that from the very beginning, cotton transfers many chemicals to the soil, which then remain in the plant and become part of the fabric of our towels and shirts.

80 billion units of clothing are produced in the world in one year. This is 4 times more than 20 years ago. Fortunately, there are organizations that strive to minimize the environmental damage of such quantities of clothing. For example, a foundation in Moscow called "Second Breath" ("Второе дихание") deals with the collection, redistribution, processing, and sales of clothes. In the beginning, all things go through primary sorting in Moscow. Some are donated, some are recycled, and the other part is sold to cover the costs. Then the clothes to be donated and sold are additionally sorted depending on their purpose: children's clothes, mid-seasonal clothes, winter clothes, etc.5․ զանգվածը տարածում են հարթ մակերևույթի վրա եւ թողնում են, որ չորանա:

The clothes to be recycled are immediately sent from Moscow to Kostroma, where the recycling warehouse is located. The warehouse divides all items into subcategories according to composition, separating synthetics, wool, and cotton. Then they sort by color and cut all the auxiliary decorations and details.

Today, every tenth buyer buys clothes exclusively to create content on social media. After that, at best, the clothes are returned to the store, at worst, they become obsolete in the wardrobe or thrown into the garbage.
But if the content is virtual, then the clothes can be virtual too. Essentially, there are three-dimensional, voluminous, and sometimes animated dresses, pants, coats, skirts, and shoes. To try it, all you need to do is take a photo in tight clothes, over which the designer clothes will be placed. This process is similar to the paper dolls or the Sims games.

Gucci also presented virtual sports shoes. They were developed together with the Belarusian Wanna IT company. A pair of shoes is $11.99 on the Gucci website and $8.99 on the Wanna app.

In China, they created the idea of animated celebrities in 2019. You invent a hero, but this hero is not a character from some story, but a virtual actress/actor who can participate and star in any project. They often give interviews, record music, etc. The first virtual female ideal is an actress named Lane.

The problem of construction waste is a concern everywhere. Knowing this well, the Danish architects decided to start the Upcycle Studios project from recycled materials. They build buildings with 75% of windows taken from abandoned buildings. The wood for the floor, walls, and facade is produced from the waste of the Dinesen organization, and the close cooperation allows for the reuse of the wood in the building. Old concrete is also reused. They obtained 1400 tons of recycled concrete from the very durable concrete waste left from the construction of the Copenhagen subway. As a result, houses with a unique history are built.

A similar story is about a man living in Vietnam who was very fond of traveling and tourism. Once, he rented an old house next to an apartment building in 1965. He likes that house so much that he decides to turn it into a cultural place. The owner collected old materials, furniture, windows, and lampshades from his friends. Old windows were used as the main material to create a distinctive look. The old windows have now been transformed into a new facade with different shades and cover the old ones. The roof of the house is also decorated with them.