FabScrap works with 135 labels across the city, collecting and recycling their textile waste. This means everything from fabric swatches to actual items of clothing. Jessica Schreiber, the 29-year-old founder of the fashion recycling nonprofit FabScrap, used to run the fashion recycling program at NYC’s Department of Sanitation. The program put large donation bins inside the basements and laundry rooms of apartment buildings in the city. Soon, brands started to reach out to her asking how they could recycle their commercial textile waste. “At first, I was excited because it seemed like it would be a great partnership for the city — but then the city was like, well, we’re not really set up to take this on,” she said. “So I thought, ok, I’ll do it myself.”
She quit her job in early 2016 and pitched her idea on the reality television show Project Runway: Fashion Startup. (You can watch the whole season on Amazon.) “It’s the most millennial way to start a business,” Schreiber admitted. Three of the four investors on the show ended up giving her seed money. She launched the business from the backroom of the Queens warehouse, which belongs to the lingerie label Hanky Panky — a FabScrap client. (FabScrap has since relocated to a bigger space, inside the Brooklyn Army Terminal.)
On average, FabScrap collects a tone of fabric per day — about 40 bags, weighing 50 pounds each. The fabric is split into brown and black bags: black bags are proprietary fabrics, which means brands have specified that material cannot be reused or resold. Brown bags are general waste. Each bag is weighed and its contents documented. Schreiber then gives this data back to the brands. “We give them a nice social media-friendly comparison — like, you’ve recycled enough to plant this many trees, or whatever. They love that.”
The nonprofit relies heavily on volunteers to help sort what’s collected. Schreiber does a lot of public speaking and guest lecturing at fashion schools and colleges, which is probably why 60% of FabScrap’s volunteers are fashion students. On the day I visited, Gia Carranza, a 21-year-old Parsons student, was sorting through a bag of leopard print samples looking for felt and wool scraps. “Everyone knows about FabScrap at my school,” she said. Rachel Karioki, 35, also from Parsons, told me: “Unless you go to a fabric store for hours, I don’t know if you ever get the opportunity to get your hands on this many types of fabrics and materials all at once.” Carranza nodded. “It’s really important to go hands on.”