“I am really upset by such a tremendous amount of dairy waste,” Mi Terro founder Robert Luo says. But where others only see waste, Mr. Luo sees a potential. He plans to make a difference by turning this waste into something useful. And so Mi Terro was born. The goal, Mr. Luo continues, is “to educate the public that we are consuming too many dairy products and we need to cut down on our food waste.”

But how exactly is clothing created from milk?

Creating Fashion From Waste

It all begins at the dairy farm where Mi Terro sources its milk. This expired milk is skimmed and dewatered so that it becomes powdered milk. This is then dissolved and purified to ensure that only the casein, which is the main protein found in milk, is left. The casein is then immersed in an alkali solution before it goes through a spinneret, where it solidifies into fibers. Once this is done, the fibers are removed from the alkali solution and stretched and spun into yarn, which is then used to manufacture clothes.

It only takes a glass of milk for Mi Terro to produce five shirts. But turning milk into high-quality fabric is not a fast process. It takes about two months to complete the entire procedure, and only two manufacturers in China can carry out the milk-to-clothing process.

Looking Towards a Greener Future

In line with the company’s goals for sustainability, and to raise public awareness of the increasing amount of dairy waste, Mr. Luo plans to add supermarkets to his list of sources for dairy waste. Not only that, Mi Terro has teamed up with the Eden Reforestation Project, a non-profit operating in five different countries to provide impoverished villagers with sustainable income while helping protect the environment. Mi Terro has pledged to plant 10 trees for every piece of clothing they sell. So far, the company has already planted a total of 2,700 trees and aims to plant a million trees in the next five years.

Mi Terro is but one of the many startups geared towards sustainable development. Whether this industry trend continues remains to be seen. But with more and more companies making the transition to reduce waste, recycle resources, and promote conservation, the future remains green and bright.

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