Exploring FABSCRAP was an experience that completely expanded my view and understanding of the textile industry. One aspect of the experience that accomplished this was actually seeing the mass of fabric in hundreds of black bags. Hearing numbers and physically seeing them in real time forces you to visualize and understand just how much FABSCRAP sorts through, and how that is unfortunately just a drop in the bucket of the world’s textile waste. What also amazed me was the sorting process of the fabric. Because industrial textile recycling is so new, recycling methods require the human labor of physically separating the fabrics. This proved to be sufficiently time and energy consuming, and allowed me to recognize how much more difficult textile recycling is from say, paper recycling. They also mentioned that only four employees worked at Fabscrap full-time, which amazed me since there is constantly so much work to be done.
Even though this sort of industrial textile recycling is relatively new and underdeveloped, textile repurposing has always been a thing. “Waste and Want” elaborates on the widespread efforts to recycle rags during the nineteenth century. “Homemade clothing, valued for the labor it embodied, was often mended and patched many times before it was discarded; sewing scraps and old clothes were salvaged for children’s clothing, patchwork quilts, and rag rugs; clothes beyond repair were saved for household chores (p. 81).” The consumerist culture that has evolved since then has removed value from these textiles, so it is inspiring to see Fabscrap reviving the practice of textile recycling on a large, industrial scale. As a young artist and designer, I understand my responsibility to be a contributing member to the sustainable future my industry is slowly adopting. Seeing the solution Fabscrap has created is an inspiration in the current existential funk I have been in as a rising creative in an international environmental crisis.
