Trash suit - 1st June 2022

Rob Greenfield is an environmentalist. He's walking the streets of Los Angeles to bring attention to the environment. He's made a suit out of his trash.

Greenfield's collecting and wearing the trash from everything he's bought in a month, and his suit already weighs 28 kilograms. He usually grows what he eats. But to spread his message about the environment, he's decided to follow the typical American diet for 30 days.

Rob Greenfield: "So this is a specially designed trash suit. Because the average person creates about five pounds of trash per day, this needs to be able to hold onto a lot of weight. So today's day 27, and I'm up to 63 pounds of trash on my body. So this suit has clear expandable pockets that grew with me through the last 27 days."

His trousers are noisy and difficult to walk in because they are made of drink cans. His top is full of food packaging.

Rob Greenfield: "It was about day 12 that I got into this and I started to really feel the burden of consumerism. I really started to just myself feel the weight and see the visual and just say wow, it's astounding how much our trash really adds up."

Anne-Marie O'Connor felt embarrassed about the amount of trash she might be producing.

Anne-Marie O'Connor: "I think it's inspiring that Rob is taking this journey. I think it's also kind of embarrassing in some ways that, to learn - cause I don't know much about that - to learn how much trash I, as an individual, am actually contributing to the environment on a daily basis."

Greenfield's tried many ways to bring attention to the environment. He also grew all his food for a year. But he thinks his trash suit's been the most effective.

Rob Greenfield: "People can understand this message, and it helps me to really reach people from, from all walks of life. Now, there are some people who think that I'm someone who's experiencing homelessness or that I have a mental health issue. But for the most part, people have just been really positive, very inspired."