Saw a stat about fabric waste that made me rethink my whole design process

I was scrolling through this sustainability report last night and found out the fashion industry throws away about 92 million tons of clothing and textile waste every single year. That number really hit me hard because I never thought about how much scrap fabric I toss after each project. I was just cutting patterns and trashing the leftovers without a second thought. Has anyone else found a good way to use up those smaller scraps or reduce waste in your own sewing?

3 comments

3 Comments

wells.olivia7d ago

My grandmother was a Depression era sewer who saved every SINGLE scrap and button her whole life. She had this massive tin full of fabric pieces smaller than my hand that she called "the hanky pile" and I always thought she was just being eccentric. It wasn't until I started quilting that I understood why she kept those bits. She could make a whole potholder out of twelve tiny triangles that would have gone in my trash. That stat about 92 million tons makes me think she was onto something way before any of us cared about sustainability.

susan6497d ago

Did your grandmother ever make those "crazy quilts" with all the random bits sewn together? That's what my mom's mom did, she had this old biscuit tin full of threads and scraps too small to do anything with and she'd piece them together into these wild colorful blankets. I think about her every time I see someone tossing fabric that's perfectly good for something, even if it's just a tiny patch. The 92 million tons number really hits home when you realize how much of that stuff could be saved with just a little creativity like our grandmothers had.

robert_bell7d ago

Grandma's hanky pile sounds nice and all, but 92 million tons is less than 1% of the total waste in the US each year. @wells.olivia can keep the potholders.