Second time around

Brut Cake: The designer uses recycled materials to create innovative furniture. Photo provided to Shanghai Star

Clothing swap

Some young people have started exchanging clothes between friends as another way to recycle.

Yang Yang, who works for a foreign company, co-organized a clothes swap event with her friends two months ago. Most of her friends have studied or lived abroad, and they say they found out about such exchanges overseas.

"We forwarded the message online and more than 30 young ladies participated and brought around 300 garments," says Yang, 26.

They had great fun selecting and trying on each other's clothes and everybody picked out four or five pieces.

"It feels like you are getting new clothes because most of them are fairly new. Many of our peers are impulsive shoppers," Yang says. "Exchanging clothes with friends is the best solution, much better than throwing them away or leaving them to take up space in the closet."

"We intend to raise awareness among young people of the importance of re-using things when pursuing new trends," she says. Yang says she intends to hold more events where people can swap clothes.