You love buying and wearing fashionable new clothes, but you also care about protecting the environment. Have you run into trouble trying to balance the two?

There is no need to worry. If you want, you can stay fashionable without compromising your taste in clothes while also working to protect the planet – and you can help change the fashion industry.

Environmental expert Lucy Siegle has given some important advice for fashion-conscious consumers who want to keep the world green. She suggests keeping 10 innovations, trends and tips in mind before shopping, which will help you stay stylish at all times.

You may feel you have already worn that shiny outfit in your wardrobe to many events. But it still looks new, and many of your friends may be waiting for the day you get rid of it.

In that case you can swap it with someone whose wardrobe also holds something that is old to them but new to you. Swapping, or donating clothes to poor people, can extend a garment's life.

According to research by the charity Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), swapping and giving away old clothes has cut the amount of clothing waste in the UK by 50,000 tonnes compared with 2012.

Caring for the environment does not mean wearing stained, dirty clothes. But whenever you do the laundry, lower the water temperature from 60 degrees Celsius to 30 degrees Celsius.

Source: BBC Bangla. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.