Cooperating with fruit and vegetable vendors as well as households to source food waste, Jordanian Batoul Alrashdan turns people’s trash into fashionable items.

The 28-year-old uses onion, clementine, orange, mango and kiwi peel to create biotextiles and produce clothing and accessories with them.

“We all know that a lot of plastic bags are now being used, plastic is also entering some textiles in the fashion industry and that is all very harmful for the environment, especially when people decide to discard them. I decided to use those food waste to create something similar to plastic but this plastic is biodegradable,” Alrashan, founder of the biotechnology and material design company ‘Bio Bor’, said.

Alrashdan said she aims to minimize the environmental impact of the fashion industry and considers fashion a medium to raise awareness on environmental issues.

Using a 3D printer, she created a dress out of textile adorned with white pallets to mimic the salts of the Dead Sea.

“I also like to link the environment with culture. As we know, the Dead Sea level is decreasing at a rate of 35% and its salts are being wasted. So I always like to shed light on this issue, this product is inspired by the salts of the Dead Sea,” she said.

Alrashdan, who studied architecture and is a researcher in science, technology, and design, previously worked in architecture but quit to pursue digital fabrication to produce her own material instead of buying them.

She exhibited her products in Europe and Dubai and sells them online.