FINCH is run by designers who want to promote more environmentally friendly fashion. Photo provided to China Daily

Recycled materials allow fashionistas to stay on-trend while being mindful of the environment. Tiffany Tan chats with Miss Earth China 2013 about a Shanghai-based fashion brand that is making bikinis from recycled plastic bottles.

When Xiang Yang attends the international Miss Earth pageant in December, China's 2013 winner plans to give some of her fellow beauty queens bikinis. She might bring blue ones with kaleidoscope patterns, or orange ones with geometric prints. Xiang says she'll decide after checking out the latest designs from the fashion brand FINCH.

A two-piece bathing suit might seem like an unremarkable gift between beauty queens－until you check out the product tags. The swimwear is made up of 13 percent spandex and 87 percent rPET, or recycled polyester, which comes from plastic bottles that once might have held beverages, household cleaners or cooking oil.

Xiang discovered the bathing suits during last November's Miss Earth China pageant, where she and the other finalists wore FINCH pieces in the swimsuit round. When the Jiangsu native took part in the international competition a month later, she brought along a FINCH bikini, whose material the other contestants apparently found "creative".