A stitch in time: Repairs, recycling and other fixes for fast-fashion waste problems

Sarah Janzen watches customers in her shop asthey pickthrough tables and racks of pants, shirts and sweaterspriced at less than three bucks per pound.

"We started off a year ago in a 2,000-square-footwarehouse with 40 volunteers," says Janzen, owner ofBlenderz Garment Recyclers. "The demand for it was so high that we've doubled."

Her new location,at 5609 Gateway Blvd. in south Edmonton, is more than 5,000 square feetand has 60 to 70 volunteers pitch in every month, sorting and processing garment donations from the public.

Good items go back for resale to stay in the local economy, Janzen says. The not-so-good ones like stained T-shirts and single socks findnew life as woven rugs or other upcycled items sold in the shop.

"The not-good clothing goes through a sanitization process and disassembly, and we put them into one of our different products," says Janzen.

She accepts donations as an eco-fee toward processing of things like used sheets and towels.

Blenderz Garment Recyclers

2 years ago

Duration 2:03

Take a tour with owner Sarah Janzen and learn more about what's happening in the new Edmonton location.

You can see more in the Clothing and Textiles Edition of Our Edmonton on Monday at 11 a.m. on CBC TV and CBC Gem or anytime here.

The shopalso sells bulk textiles and clothing that can be recycled or upcycled by cottage industries.

"We're keeping the resources for people to make things here and take care of our waste right here," Janzen says."So we're not creating the carbon emissions from exporting and ending up in a landfill in another country."

Janzen says the system produces a little more than two kilograms ofgarbage each week out of more than 1,300 kilograms of items coming in.

A growing aspect of the Blenderz business is classes held on the last Thursday of every month, offering instruction in skills likelearning to sew and mend orcreating homemade holiday presents.

"It's amazing to just get over that fear to fix something yourself. There's a sense of self-worth and self-reliance," Janzen says about projects as small as sewing on a button.

That kind of pride is something Rachel McQueen has seen first-hand.

Last month, McQueen, an associate professor in the University of Alberta's human ecology department, joined her colleagues tolauncha Clothing Repair Caf.

Skilled volunteers assistpeople mending rips, addingpatches or replacingzippers or buttons with a goal of helping them learn how to give a longer life to the clothes that they theylove.

"It was so much fun. It was such a great vibe," says McQueen. She has opened registration for the next free public event, which will be held Nov.19 from 1 to 4 p.m.

The average Canadian discards about 31 kilograms of textiles per year equivalent to the weight of about 70 soccer balls.McQueen saysthe act of taking care of your clothes causes people to be less likely to dispose of them.

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A recent textile audit done in Ontarioestimated that about two-thirdsof textiles foundin residential waste could have been reused with a small amount of mending.

Repair, says McQueen, is as important as the other three Rs reduce, reuseand recycle.

Other tips include considering reselling or clothing swaps for unwanted items and rentingclothing items for special occasions like weddings and graduations.