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Wearing a Suit Made From a Month's Worth of Trash, Activist Hits Beverly Hills Streets

Rob Greenfield turned heads in Beverly Hills this week.

NBCUniversal Media, LLC

One person's trash is this man's suit.

Rob Greenfield waddled and, at times, wobbled his way through Beverly Hills Monday wearing see-through bags filled with garbage. The cumbersome suit of trash — taped to his arms, legs, shoulders and abdomen — includes cups, bags, boxes, cartons and other discarded items that Greenfield has used this month.

Here's why.

"So, for one month, I'm living like the average person, just eating, shopping, consuming like so many of us are used to," said Greenfield, an activist seeking to end food waste. "But the catch is, I have to wear every single piece of trash that I create."

After 27 days of turning his trash into part of his wardrobe, Greenfield estimated he was wearing about 67 pounds of garbage. A lot of what he ended up wearing is food packaging, Greenfield said.

"For most people, trash is out of sight, out of mind — we throw it away and we never think about it again," he told a group of wide-eyed onlookers. "This is to create a visual that shows just how much it adds up."

Some people Greenfield met said his demonstration resonated with them.

"If we all had to carry all of our trash around, after a while, we'd be very aware of what we're dumping into the landfills, into the ocean," said Trelawny Dios, a visitor to the city, who added she'd "absolutely" consider changing her own habits after seeing it.

"It was a little disgusting for me to see how much I'm wasting and how many things we're all throwing away," Beverly Hills resident Davina Kangavari said.

Greenfield says he doesn't want to shame anyone about their trash, but to serve as a billboard for awareness.

And yes, he says he cleans every item before wearing it.

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