Researchers have recently demonstrated their unexpected solutions for preventing avoidable waste at a waste summit held in London. The event was attended by 200 leaders from universities, government, business and volunteer groups.

With the aim of reducing avoidable waste by 2030, researchers have found alternative uses for items ranging from old duvets to discarded jean legs cut away for the purpose of creating denim shorts.

Considering the environmental penalty of sorts for the manufacturing of goods like duvets — a process that uses energy and that releases greenhouse gases — attendees have been tasked with coming up with alternative uses for commonly discarded materials, thereby keeping them out of the landfill.

To demonstrate their ongoing efforts, architects from Duncan Baker-Brown have constructed the Waste House in Brighton. The structure is built entirely from construction waste, which is responsible for a significant amount of the U.K. waste stream.

Here, researchers are experimenting with how well duvets work as insulation in a home. Along with filling the home’s hollow walls with the bedding material, researchers have also tested the insulation qualities of discarded items such as old audio cassette tapes, floppy discs, old wallpaper rolls and denim legs cut from pairs of jeans.

Attendees of the so-called Waste-to-Wealth summit are committed to developing creative solutions for reusing waste material while also designing goods that require less material to manufacture initially. These efforts are designed to support the government’s upcoming Waste and Resources Strategy, which is currently working on policies designed to minimize waste. Among the policies under consideration is a suggestion to abandon value-added tax (VAT) on refurbished homes.

According to architects at Duncan Baker-Brown: “You pay 20% VAT to refurbish a building, but zero VAT to demolish and rebuild. There is a tax incentive to knock buildings down, which is frankly insane."

The Waste and Resources Strategy is due in late December.