What Californians Throw Away

Today we have something special for you: A guest blog by long-term fabMo supporter Shana McCracken. Shana is deeply involved with the challenge of waste prevention and reduction, especially related to textiles in her role as Chair of the Waste Prevention, Reuse & Repair Technical Council of the California Resource Recovery Association (CRRA).

Enjoy!

The State of the State in Textiles

Learning exactly what is being thrown away is essential to finding more sustainable solutions. State agency CalRecycle recently released the results of its 2018 statewide waste characterization study, which it conducts once every four years. The study looked at the full range of materials that are still going into California landfills—from concrete to food scraps and, yes, textiles. Their findings are fascinating … and a bit shocking.

In 2018 textiles made up 3% of landfilled material. No big deal, right? Wrong. That 3% represents 1,199,461 tons of textiles going in the trash in just one year! By comparison, textiles made up only 2.1% or 748,336 tons in 1999. That’s a 160% increase in under two decades. When broken out by source, textiles are the 5th most prevalent material coming both from single family households and from businesses.

These figures just go to show how important FabMo’s mission is and how critical a role each one of you plays, whether you’re a volunteer or a customer. It’s obvious that FabMo benefits the community in so many ways by providing beautiful fabrics to artists and teachers, sewists and crafters. But our positive environmental impact is equally important. By reducing textiles going to landfill we reduce greenhouse gases which ultimately helps curb climate change. It doesn’t get bigger than that!

So the next time you visit FabMo and hold a beautiful piece of fabric in your hands, know that you also hold the key to a sustainable future for all of us. Thank you.