How are we doing?
Things are busy at SCRAP this summer!
Having started as a passion project of our founder Patrick Mettelus, we’re now diverting tons of clothing from landfills, reselling and recycling with partners around the globe and planning the manufacture of “new” clothing from our own recycled materials.
We strongly believe that circularity is built on collaboration, so, as we grow, we’re strengthening our existing partnerships and building new ones with an overarching goal of expanding our pickup geographies and diversifying our roster of recycling partners.
Where did we start?
The driving force behind SCRAP is our CEO, Patrick Metellus. Throughout his life, he has been an avid contributor to charity and community work.
Growing up, he and his mother would always check an extra suitcase filled with clothes for donation when they traveled together to the Caribbean and Central and South America.
As an adult, together with his partner, Paloma (an experienced fashion industry professional, who worked for brands like Victoria’s Secret, Kate Spade, and Barneys New York) he launched SCRAP after realizing the boundless potential for the vast amounts of post-consumer clothing and accessories that are thrown away in NYC area.
Patrick and Paloma’s ambitious aim is to scale their vision for a circular fashion economy from New York to the world and shift the entire fashion industry toward a more transparent and sustainable future.
Where are we now?
Clothing collection:
We have collected almost 15,000 lbs of used clothing through our pick-up services in New York City and approximately 2,500 lbs from our drop-off location in Astoria, which is generously accommodated by Earth & Me Zero Waste Store.
We have another 2500 lbs of clothing through our brand partnerships with Thistle and Spire, Bitter Grace, LEAP, Parade, Nanushka, and Soorty. They have donated their customer’s used clothing, unsellable samples, returns, scraps, and damaged items.
We compile environmental impact reporting for all of our partners, which can be seen on the “Partners” page of our website. Clicking on each partner’s logo will show you how much clothing they have donated and the amount of carbon, water, and chemicals they have saved the planet from waste.
So far, SCRAP’s services have saved the environment over 30 tons of CO2 and 100 million liters of water.We recently expanded our pick-up service to Washington, DC, thanks to our amazing partner, Bitter Grace sustainable boutique! We are very excited to see how much more clothing we can divert from landfills in this new geography for us!
Processing of donations:
About 10% of donations we receive are barely used designer pieces. We're sure there's someone out there who would love these items again, so we ship those pieces to our partner Tersus Solutions for serious cleaning, after which we resell those items in boutiques like Bitter Grace, with proceeds supporting women’s organizations like Women’s HQ.
The remaining 90% of the donations we receive are sorted by Sort & Export in NJ, the first fully automated clothing sorting facility in the United States. This process allows us to divide the clothing based on its composition and direct it to the most appropriate recycling partner.
Our most recently established recycling partner is a Swedish-based company, Renewcell. They process the cotton-based textiles into a pulp, which then is milled into a fabric called Circulose, which can be woven into new textiles to make new (recycled) clothing!We are carefully researching and vetting recycling partners as you read this. We can’t wait to unravel new partnerships soon!
Where are we going?
Our near-term goal is the expansion of our collection and recycling services. We want to divert more clothing from landfills and put it on a more circular path to reuse, so right now…
We’re expanding our pickup services, both within the NY metro area and into other cities like Washington, DC.
We’re adding drop-off locations throughout New York and other major US cities.
We’re researching the latest sorting and recycling technologies to find better end-user solutions for your used clothing.
Finally, we want to ensure that our operations aren’t leaving an unnecessary environmental footprint. We have some exciting news in store that we hope to share next month!
Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn to stay updated. Reach out to us if you have any questions or are interested in partnering with us.
