Howdy,

I'm an outdoor industry veteran who left the rat race to join the porcupine race.

My specialty in garment manufacturing, and my line of work is fraught with bad karma: labor abuse, chemicals, predatory purchasing, destructive farming, etc. My biggest problem is waste. At our best, we can use 90% of any textile(ours is imported), leather, or other material we purchase. Our community has textile recycling, but all the fabric and clothing are exported again for reprocessing. These materials make 4 crossings of the Pacific before they end up under carpeting, road beds, or as absorbents for industrial spills.

For the last 10 years I've opened our shop to the community for a 'freebie' cleanup day. While most of the scraps are consumed by avid craftsmen, we always produce more that they can use.

Has anyone devised a unique solution for their leftovers?

Cheers,

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

Welcome! Your question made me think of this hat company near me here in VA, The Mouse Works: (http://www.locallectual.com/component/option,com_sobi2/sobi2Task,sobi2Details/sobi2Id,150/Itemid,66/)

They use all of their fleece scraps for tassels and other decorations. Perhaps if tassels are not your thing, and if the actual physical community around you does not seem to need as many scraps as you have to offer, maybe you could connect with someone in the esty community (www.etsy.com) somehow, to see if they could use your scraps. It seems to me that the people of etsy are capable of using up even the tiniest of leftovers! Not sure how you would reach out, but maybe it is something to look into...

good luck! let us know how your search works out!

~k