![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/275px-Soutien_des_seine_par_une_brassiere.jpg\")
Photo, circa 1900, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n
Okay, so maybe you’re not a big bra wearer (no pun intended)\u2014lots of farmgirls are going without these days\u2014but I’ll bet that most of you have some old wire-rimmed contraptions laying around at the bottom of a drawer somewhere.<\/p>\n
Am I right?<\/p>\n
Well, if so, Kathleen Kirkwood wants them. Of course, she wants the ones without wires, too\u2014stretch, lace, cami, padded, training, but no gel or water cups, please.<\/p>\n
Wait a minute \u2026 what<\/em>?<\/p>\nIntimate apparel designer and QVC maven Kathleen Kirkwood wants your used bras.<\/p>\n
Seriously.<\/p>\n
The thing is, Kathleen knows bras. Like, lots of bras. She has been designing them, in one form or another, since the early ’80s. But a few years ago, as she was handling a huge shipment of bras from Hong Kong, she had one of those light-bulb moments.<\/p>\n
“I thought, we have to start recycling bras,” she recounted to Mother Nature Network<\/u><\/a>. “Let me go back to New York and find a company that does this. I’ll put it on my hang tags so I can be this super-cool designer. But lo and behold, there was nothing going on.”<\/p>\nThe more she researched, the more she felt compelled to fill this gaping niche.<\/p>\n
According to MNN, “Some 500 million bras\u2014made of toxic materials such as polyurethane foam, which off-gases dangerous VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and doesn’t biodegrade for centuries\u2014are tossed into U.S. landfills each year or are incinerated.”<\/p>\n
Long story short, Kathleen got ‘er done. In 2010, she founded B.R.A. (Bra Recycling Agency), which transforms old bras into\u2014you’ll never guess this one\u2014red-carpet cushioning.<\/p>\n
I’ll let Kathleen show and tell you in her original “test pilot” recycling video \u2026<\/p>\n