SWIFT program starts recycling, reusing fabric
By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 8/18/2008 1:56:00 PM
Las Vegas – A program initiated by SWIFT, the Sample Waste Initiative for Furniture and Textiles industries, has begun collecting discarded fabric for reuse in quilts, wheelchair bags and other items for children in need.
Named the Green Initiative for Furniture and Textiles, or GIFFT, the new program was created by SWIFT and by Houston-based recycling company Avangard Innovative and Yardley, Pa.-based charity Quilts for Kids.
“I wanted to get people talking about the problem of fabric waste,” said SWIFT founder Sue Patrolia, product manager for Regal Fabrics. “The mission is to find ways to reduce, reuse and recycle and the GIFFT program is a huge step forward.”
Retailers and manufacturers learned about the program during a presentation at the recent Las Vegas Market.
The program was kicked off in July when about a ton of material from excess end rolls or discontinued fabric was collected at Rooms To Go’s Lakeland, Fla., distribution center, said Joe Stalnaker, national account manager of Avangard Innovative. Stalnaker, who spent more than a decade in warehouse management and is a former director of recycling for Rooms To Go, is leading the GIFFT program.
Avangard Innovative’s recycling customers include Ashley stores, Victoria, Texas-based Lack’s and Rooms To Go. The program aims to collect 10 tons of fabric this year, and Stalnaker said it is likely to top that. “We’ve targeted the furniture industry and fabric manufacturers .... It can be open to whoever wants to drop off fabric. The goal is to ship at least a half a truckload full from each site,” he said.
Stalnaker said the program will help companies reduce waste-handling expenses, be environmentally responsible, and help children in need. Donations are tax-deductible.
The program uses warehouse space donated by Avangard in Houston, Sonoco Recycling in Greensboro, N.C., and Sunburst Paper in Loxley, Ala. Transportation for the 2008 program has been donated by CH Robinson Atlanta South Division. “If furniture companies want to donate a warehouse site, we will add another collection site,” he said.
After it is collected, the fabric goes to Quilts for Kids, a network of volunteer quilters founded in 2000 by interior designer Linda Ayre. The volunteers make quilts for children in hospitals or other care facilities.
According to its website, the organization has kept over one million pounds of fabric out of landfills.
(Reported by Heath E. Combs, staff writer for Furniture Today, a sister publication of HTT.)
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