Prince Charles “can’t bear” throwing anything away.
The 68-year-old royal admitted he’d rather find “another use” for waste products, whatever they are, and branded single-use society a “tragedy” that is leading to natural resources being “over-exploited”.
He said: “I’m one of those people who hate throwing anything away… I can’t bear any waste, including food waste; I’d much rather find another use.
“Which is why I’ve been going on for so long about the need for a circular economy, rather than a linear one where you just make, take and throw away – which is a tragedy, because inevitably we over-exploit natural resources that are rapidly depleting.”
When it comes to his own clothes, Charles admitted he can’t repair and maintain as much as he used to because of his changing shape.
He told Britain’s Vogue magazine: “I’d rather have them maintained, even patched if necessary, than to abandon them.
“The difficulty is, as you get older, you tend to change shape, and it’s not so easy to fit into the clothes.”
One outfit the prince is willing to wear over and over again is the suit he donned to his son Prince Harry’s wedding to the Duchess of Sussex, who was known as Meghan Markle before her wedding.
Asked if he considered wearing something new to the wedding instead of the Anderson & Sheppard suit from 1984 which he donned, he said: “I’ve considered it. But in the case of that particular morning coat, as long as I can go on getting into it, I only wear it a few times a year, in the summer, so obviously you want to keep those sorts of things going.
“But if I can’t fit into them, then I just have to have something new made. But I’m not sure quite how radically different they can be at my age.”