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[00:00.40] Leonora Buenviaje has been making women’s clothes out of waste materials, usually dresses.

[00:11.03] She says wearing clothes made from waste materials can be both economical and look good.

[00:20.85] Buenviaje is 51-years-old and from Cainta in the Philippines, about 15 kilometers east of the capital Manilla.

[00:35.20] To make her dresses, she uses a foot-operated sewing machine to join together the waste materials.

[00:45.03] These include recycled newspapers, plastic wrapping and rice sacks.

[00:52.46] Recycling is when something new is made from something that has been used before.

[01:00.70] The process Buenviaje uses to join the materials together is called sewing.

[01:09.20] Sewing combines two pieces of cloth or is used to repair cloth.

[01:16.37] She creates new and beautiful clothes women can wear.

[01:22.48] They are sometimes completed with a piece called a headdress that goes on top of the head.

[01:31.24] "The bubble wraps from delivery packages are nice looking and make for a good design, especially the black and white wraps," she said.

[01:44.26] Bubble wrap is a plastic product that is used to protect goods that are being delivered.

[01:53.29] She said white bubble wraps were good for making wedding dresses.

[01:59.93] The dresses sell for between $30 to $50.

[02:05.51] They are used for everything from coming-of-age parties for a woman’s 18th birthday, called debuts, to weddings.

[02:17.73] In Asia, there is plenty of waste material for Buenviaje to work with: about 80 percent of the world ocean plastic is estimated to come from Asian rivers.

[02:36.06] A 2021 report by Oxford University’s online publication, Our World in Data, found that the Philippines is responsible for one third of Asia’s ocean plastic pollution.

[02:55.45] "It's important to recycle or utilize used materials so we can help our earth," said Lalaine Alcalde, who buys clothes from Buenviaje.

[03:11.38] Buenviaje said the recycled materials used for each dress depend on what her buyers are looking for.

[03:22.27] She said her dresses are used in beauty competitions and are popular with young girls.

[03:31.30] "I get delighted whenever they win, the designs are simple but they still win," she said.

[03:39.01] Buenviaje hopes in-person clothing shows called fashion shows and competitions that were stopped during the pandemic will begin again soon.

[03:52.82] She also aims to organize fashion shows herself to show and help others find ideas to create clothing out of recycled materials.