FABSCRAP is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year - congratulations! Looking back over the past decade, what inspired the organisation’s founding, and how has its mission evolved since 2016?  

Since 2016, FABSCRAP’s mission has continued to grow beyond addressing the very specific problem of textile waste. While our environmental impact remains at the heart of what we do, one of the things I’m most proud of is the community that has grown around our mission. We’ve brought together people who are passionate about sustainability, creativity, and making a difference, whether through volunteering, finding a creative outlet, attending events, or discovering new ways to work with reclaimed materials. 

What have been some of the biggest changes you’ve seen in textile waste and recycling over the last 10 years? How has the industry’s approach to textile waste shifted?  

Over the last decade, I think one of the biggest shifts has been a growing awareness that textile waste is a much larger and more complex problem than many people realize. One common misconception is that textile waste is a single waste stream, when in reality, it comes from several different places. There’s post-consumer waste, which includes clothing people discard or donate, and pre-consumer/post-industrial waste, which is generated by designers and manufacturers throughout the fashion supply chain. Right now much of the attention in textile recycling is focused on what happens to clothing after consumers are finished with it, while FABSCRAP focuses on the significant amount of valuable material that never makes it to that stage in the first place. 

Having been a fashion designer myself, I knew many industry professionals already recognized that this waste existed and wanted to do something about it, but they didn’t have a clear or accessible solution. Over time, we’ve seen a growing interest in addressing textile waste at its source and a greater understanding that sustainability needs to be integrated into everyday business practices, rather than treated as a separate initiative. 

I think the industry has made important strides in recognizing textile waste as a systemic issue, but there’s still a lot of work to do. A lot of the fashion industry relies of textile-to-textile recycling innovations to continue operating within a linear system and to continue overproducing, and we have to keep pushing to utilize these innovations in addition to adopting circular system changes. 

You’re marking the anniversary during NYC Climate Week. Why was this the right moment and place to celebrate 10 years of FABSCRAP, and what conversations do you hope the anniversary brings to the forefront?  

Celebrating FABSCRAP’s 10th anniversary during New York Climate Week felt especially meaningful because it brought together people who turn climate goals into tangible, real-world action. Over the past decade, FABSCRAP has shown that addressing textile waste isn’t just about raising awareness; it’s about building the infrastructure, engaging the community, and creating practical solutions that make circularity possible on a larger scale. 

New York is also where FABSCRAP’s story began, so it feels fitting to celebrate this milestone in the city that has been such an important part of our journey. We’ve seen firsthand how bringing together industry partners, designers, and community members can create meaningful change, and I hope this anniversary sparks conversations about how we move beyond good intentions toward more systemic solutions. Textile waste needs to be addressed across the entire fashion supply chain, and that requires continued collaboration and shared responsibility across the industry. 

It also requires financial support, and the Climate Week celebration was one of many important fundraisers this year that will help us build on the progress we’ve made. Ultimately, I hope this milestone reminds people that circularity doesn’t happen on its own. It takes sustained investment, collective action, and a willingness to rethink how we use and value materials. We’ve made meaningful progress, but there’s still so much opportunity ahead. 

Over the past decade, FABSCRAP has worked with a wide range of companies and organisations. What role have partnerships played in helping you scale your impact?  

Partnerships have been absolutely essential to FABSCRAP’s growth and our ability to scale our impact over the past decade. Having brands partner with us to divert their textile waste has given us the opportunity to pursue our mission while building a financially sustainable organization. The service fees we charge for recycling and textile diversion help cover the real costs of collecting, sorting, processing, and transporting materials, allowing us to build the infrastructure needed to make circularity work in practice, rather than relying solely on donations. That infrastructure is often overlooked in sustainability conversations, but it’s essential to creating meaningful, long-term change. 

We’re incredibly grateful to the brands that have supported us since the early days, including J.Crew, Steve Madden, MillerKnoll, URBN, and PVH. Many of these partners have gone beyond recycling with us by providing grants, organizing group volunteer days, and finding additional ways to support our mission. Their commitment has helped us grow and demonstrates what’s possible when companies take an active role in addressing the waste they generate. 

Partnerships also extend beyond the fashion industry. Schools, nonprofits, and other organizations working across sustainability and creative fields have helped us expand our educational reach and redistribute reclaimed materials to people who can give them a second life. These relationships allow us to reach new audiences, engage more people in circularity, and extend the impact of our work far beyond waste diversion alone. 

FABSCRAP’s growth has shown me that no single organization can solve textile waste on its own. These partnerships have been fundamental not only to how far we’ve come, but also to how we can continue to grow our impact in the years ahead. 

Can you share a project, partnership or moment from FABSCRAP’s 10-year journey that stands out as particularly meaningful to the team?  

One partnership that stands out as particularly meaningful was URBN’s three-year grant to FABSCRAP, which enabled us to open a location in Philadelphia from 2021-2024. It was a significant milestone for us because it gave us the opportunity to test what expansion could look like and see whether we could successfully bring our model to a new city. 

The experience proved that we could replicate our textile diversion services beyond New York, but it also reinforced something that has always been central to FABSCRAP: the importance of community. We were able to cultivate a loyal following in Philadelphia, which showed us that the need for this kind of service, and the enthusiasm for being part of a more circular approach to fashion, extended beyond our original home base. 

At the same time, the experience taught us a lot about what sustainable growth really requires. We gained a much clearer understanding of the financial investment and committed support needed to establish and maintain warehouse operations in a new location. Having a model that works is one thing, but replicating it successfully requires the right resources, infrastructure, and long-term partnerships. 

I think that experience was incredibly valuable because it gave us both the confidence to know that expansion is possible and a more realistic understanding of what it takes to do it well. We’re grateful to URBN for making that opportunity possible, and the lessons we learned in Philadelphia continue to inform how we think about FABSCRAP’s future growth. 

Looking ahead, what does the next 10 years look like for FABSCRAP? Are there particular areas of growth, innovation or impact you’re especially focused on? 

I think the next 10 years for FABSCRAP are about moving beyond proving that textile waste can be managed differently to helping rethink why that waste exists in the first place. 

Over the past decade, we’ve learned so much about pre-consumer textile waste and what it takes to manage it at scale. While there’s been significant innovation and investment in textile recycling, much of that attention has focused on post-consumer waste, leaving pre-consumer waste as a significant and often overlooked part of the problem. I see a real opportunity for FABSCRAP to help close that gap by working more closely with brands, not just when they have waste to dispose of, but much earlier in the design, sourcing, and production process. 

Education has a really important role to play in shaping the next decade. One of the biggest areas where I’d like to see progress is getting design and production teams more actively involved in creating solutions, rather than having sustainability addressed primarily at the end of the process. We need to make waste prevention and material recovery part of the conversation from the very beginning, and I think a lot of our educational efforts can help here. The role of a designer is being redefined, and so aspiring students also need to understand not only how to create compelling products, but also how their decisions affect material use, waste, and a product’s entire lifecycle. Deepening our partnership with schools and equipping the next generation with that knowledge is essential if we want to build a more sustainable system. 

What gives you the most optimism about the future of textile circularity in the US?  

What gives me the most optimism is seeing how many more people and organizations have stepped up to develop solutions and push textile circularity forward. There’s growing momentum across the industry, with companies exploring everything from textile-to-textile recycling to new ways of reusing and repurposing materials. The solutions may look different, but I think the fact that more people are dedicating their time, resources, and expertise to solving this problem is incredibly encouraging. It shows that more people recognize the scale of the challenge and are willing to take action. 

I’m also optimistic about the willingness to collaborate. The volumes of textile waste we’re dealing with are enormous, and no single organization or solution can address the problem on its own. Everyone is tackling a different piece of the puzzle, whether that’s collection, sorting, recycling, reuse, or finding new end markets for materials. There’s a growing understanding that we need to learn from one another, share knowledge, and build connections across the industry if we want these solutions to have a meaningful impact. 

It’s really important that we continue fostering that sense of community among the organizations and people who specialize in textiles. We may have different approaches, but we’re all working toward a common goal. The more we can connect, exchange ideas, and identify opportunities to work together, the better positioned we’ll be to address the scale of textile waste in the US. For me, that combination of growing innovation and a genuine willingness to collaborate is what makes me most hopeful about the future of textile circularity.