bearisgray

I have tried to find places that will take "household" textile scrap to shred in my area. So far, I have not found one.

Thought I had a one, but it turned out to not be.

I am totally in favor of trying to keep it out of the landfill - but this stuff is scrap ! About as useful for me to keep around as a banana peel or used peanut shells.

mom-6

A number of years ago, when our house burned, I was the recipient of bags of clothing destined for donation to our local ministry. At first it was hard for me to not keep everything that was my size. But after a few days I realized that if it was something I would never wear then keeping it wasn't right and I should pass it to someone who would gratefully use it.

I now apply that to my fabric and craft supplies as well and from time to time will go through and weed out what I know I won't use. Need to do that soon with my yarn stash. I have a friend who would gladly use it for her hats.

oksewglad

When reviving these "treasures" to charity organizations to be used to make something, make sure it really is usable. My church sewing group gets quite a bit of s'crap'....Fortunately the local thrift store can recycle these dregs of fabric waste.

I love getting the little leftovers of quality fabrics. The gifters enjoy seeing what I can make with them.

roadrunr

It is nice to get fabric from other people, but one can only use so much of it, or make so many quilts in a year. It is hard for me to get rid of even the smallest piece, but I just have to do it. Luckily for me, SWALCO (solid waste agency of lake county (IL)) has a recycling program that also includes used clothing and fabric. If they get something that can be used, they will send it to the thrift store, if it's something that can't be used, it goes to a recycling plant that will recycle the fabric into rags and other things. Even worn out shoes are recycled! Maybe other communities have a similar program.

chris_quilts

I use the pants shortening leftovers for testing machines that I need to get tensions right or even see if they sew! Sounds silly but why waste "good" fabric doing that when those leftovers are fabulous. I use my old, old thin pillowcases for testing decorative stitches on the vintage machines. They are being useful and I am not wasting good fabric on that project either. Perhaps these only apply in my situation but it's how I use up some stuff that might otherwise go into the trash. I admit that I'm no longer obsessive about ripping out the stitches and reusing 5 or 6 times before trashing the fabric but I might use it twice over and every single iota of space is filled up.