Where do your old clothes go?

11 February 2015Last updated at 10:01 ET By Lucy Rodgers BBC News Every year, thousands of us across the UK donate our used clothing to charity - many in the belief that it will be given to those in need or sold in High Street charity shops to raise funds. But a new book has revealed that most of what we hand over actually ends up getting shipped abroad - part of a £2.8bn ($4.3bn) second-hand garment trade that spans the globe. We investigate the journey of our cast-offs and begin to follow one set of garments from donation to their eventual destination. Continue reading the main story How charity clothing donations end up traded abroad. Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story UK consumers ditch more than a million tonnes of clothing every year. Continue reading the main story “Start Quote There's a moment of magic where a gift turns into a commodity” End QuoteDr Andrew BrooksKing's College London Continue reading the main story

Wearable pineapple fibres could prove sustainable alternative to leather | Business At weddings and formal events in the Philippines, men can often be seen wearing the Barong Tagalog, a thin and transparent embroidered garment worn over a shirt. One of the more surprising materials used in its manufacture are fibres from pineapple leaves – and long strands of the leaves could soon also be used to make a host of other products, from trainers and clothes to bags and car upholstery. Called Piñatex - piña is Spanish for pineapple - the new material was created by Carmen Hijosa, who worked as a consultant in the Philippines leather goods industry in the 1990s. She was unimpressed with the standard of goods produced and started to look for alternatives. The breakthrough came when Hijosa realised that she could make a non-woven mesh – a fabric which is bonded together without knitting or weaving – from the long fibres, in a similar way to felt. The fibres that make up Piñatex are extracted from pineapple leaves on plantations by farmers before they are cut up and layered.

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