We Recycle, We Don’t Just Throw It Away

Fast fashion has made clothing cheaper than ever, but at a high environmental cost. Earth.org estimates that about 92 million tons of unwanted clothing end up in landfills every year. That’s the equivalent of a garbage truck full of clothes being dumped every second. Thomas Harter and his team at Austria's Graz University of Technology hope to help reduce this waste by using discarded clothes to create stronger packaging material. The process involves:
1. Shredding the clothing and soaking it in a water-based solution
2. Putting the mixture through a milling machine, which separates the cotton fibers from the fabric
3. Combining the fiber mix with recycled paper pulp
4. Running the mixture through traditional papermaking machines

The result is a stronger paper than one made from recycled paper fibers alone. This is because textile fibers, which are much longer than regular paper fibers, fit together better. Most importantly, it can be recycled just like regular paper.

Your Task:
Consider what you use a lot of that you think could be recycled or reused into a different product. For example: jean material into coffee cup cozies. Explain how the material/product could be recycled or reused. Pitch your new product to a manufacturing company.