Making clothes out of greenhouse gas

We humans are unique. One way we’re different from all other animals is that we wear clothes. And because there are 8 billion of us – that’s many, many more humans than ever before on Earth - we’re creating problems for the planet with our clothes.

A lot of clothes are made from man-made material – like polyester. Polyester is basically plastic. We make it from oil pumped out of the ground.

One of the problems with this is that using this oil adds to the carbon dioxide gas – orCO2 – that we are putting into our air. And all that CO2 is helping to heat up planet Earth, causing changes in our climate that we see in scorching weather this summer.

But what if there was a way to make clothes that didn’t add to pollution – and even helped get rid of CO2 that’s already there?

Sean's dress from pollution

WoW! News would like you to meet Sean. In the WoW! News app, he’ll tell you about his brilliant idea. Sean helps Zara, the big fashion store chain, to make dresses like this one.

‍

But Sean isn’t a fashion designer. He’s a scientist.

And these dresses are partly made with CO2. That’s right, the climate changing gas that pollutes our air when we make stuff like steel, cement or plastic.

Sean Simpson is the science brain behind a company called Lanza Tech which captures polluting carbon and turns it into special material for dresses. 

How?

By working with bacteria – tiny bugs. There are millions of different bacteria in the world and each one does different things. As Sean told us: “Different kinds of bacteria have different superpowers.”

Super bugs

Sean has found some bacteria whose superpower is to eat CO2 and turn it into chemicals that Sean can use to make plastic – or other stuff that we normally make from oil. So instead of pumping out yet more oil to create more CO2 in order to make plastics like polyester for clothes, Sean grabs the old CO2 that’s coming out of factories. He takes it out of the air and puts it in dresses.

The same idea works to make not just plastic but even fuel for aeroplanes.

Sean say she’s “really proud” and happy to work somewhere where’s he’s helping fix our planet – and his message to kids is that everyone’s ideas are needed. Climate change is a big problem and it’ll take more than one idea to sort it, says Sean.

So, he says: “Get thinking!”

Check outSean’s interview with WoW! News in our app.

And findout more about Lanza Tech here and their dresses for Zara here.

‍