Unwanted bioplastic fashion items could be dumped in landfills forever, creating artificial carbon sinks to tackle climate change, according to designer Charlotte McCurdy.
The radical idea would upend contemporary thinking, burying carbon-rich bioplastic waste rather than reusing it while putting to good use the vast amounts of waste generated by the fashion industry.
Burying bioplastic could be an "amazing thing"
"We look at our landfills and we cry about how immortal the stuff we put in them is," said the New York-based designer.
"But I think that landfills could pivot to being this amazing thing we did that saves us ? or at least buys us some time ? as we are barreling towards catastrophic climate change." Charlotte McCurdy (top image) created a couture dress (above) in collaboration with Phillip Lim
McCurdy describes herself as a designer and researcher who "focuses on making existential threats, such as climate change, more tractable through design". Her best-known work is a carbon-negative translucent raincoat made of algae-derived bioplastic.
She is exploring how plants and algae could be turned into carbon-rich bioplastics, alleviating the need for plastics made from fossil feedstocks and ending fashion's reliance on greenhouse-gas emitting materials.
Garments containing captured atmospheric carbon could be buried rather than composted or recycled after use, preventing the carbon from re-entering the atmosphere.
Landfills cou...