On the mainland - the world's largest garment exporter - producers of cotton garments alone discard 800,000 tons of textile waste every year.
"And the figure is still increasing," Gong Yan, an associate professor at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, who studies garment materials, says.
Chinese clothing factories, he says, dispose of unwanted textiles in various ways, including sending them to landfills, burning them and burying them. But these practices aren't sustainable.
"They limit the scope of recycling, as well as waste resources and produce pollution," Gong, a member of the All-China Environment Federation's research committee on environmental protection standards, says.
"Since synthetic fibers do not easily decompose, the soil where they are in the landfill will harden. At the same time, harmful particles from the textile waste will seep into the earth and groundwater. Burning, on the other hand, will generate a lot of dust and carbon dioxide, and affect the environment."
Using discarded or recycled materials as a response to environmental degradation is becoming more common in the fashion world. But designers like Lam are still rare in China.
"In general, the wealthy, developed countries produce the most waste, and perhaps for this reason, this (trend) is happening more in them," Timo Rissanen, assistant professor of fashion design and sustainability at Parsons The New School for Design in New York, tells China Daily.
This year, Redress has brought the Ecochic Design contest to the Chinese mainland. The winner, to be named during the Shanghai Fashion Week in October, will also create a recycled collection for Esprit, which wants to use its fabric waste. Like Lam's designs, these designer pieces will be sold only in selected Esprit stores in the country.
