Irina McKenzie founded FABCYCLE in 2017 with the goal of diverting “textile waste from the landfill by engaging [the] community, connecting with the industry and working with national and international partners” (McKenzie). FABCYCLE’s mission draws many parallels with this project, including a goal of redirecting waste that has the potential to be recycled or reused, along with creating and engaging with the respective communities.
FABCYCLE
FABCYCLE “started working with small independent designers and schools that… recycle their scraps and offcuts” but they later expanded their clientele (started working with small independent designers and schools that… recycle their scraps and offcuts (McKenzie, 2020). This is a good starting point that I may follow when starting to network within the community.
FABCYCLE’s framework is set up into five categories, collect, sort, reuse, recycle, and recover. This project will mimic this with some modifications. The collection will be the same (whichever method ends up being the best), but sorting will also include cleaning and drying of post-consumer plastics (PCP). Then comes the shredding, extruding, and spooling, which will mirror FABCYCLE’s last three stages in reverse. Recovering will come first, followed by recycling (remelting and extruding), and finally, reuse by the (temporary) end-user being able to 3D print with the filament again.
FABCYCLE
Frameworq Education Society, created by Irina in 2017, has stated that it has a “mission to overthrow a throwaway culture, bring back repair skills, build resilient communities, and divert textile waste from the landfill” (McKenzie, 2020). In an interview with CBC News, Irina explained that “We buy something and then we throw it away, but [there’s] no such thing as ‘throw it away,’ it’s not going away, it’s actually staying. And it’s pretty fascinating to me, I think, that actually most of the things we own are going to last longer than we live.” This is the same mentality that I have going into this project, and I feel that people need to understand that throwing something away doesn’t make it disappear.
My Two Sent.’s: When Irina came to one of our studio classes in 2019 for a brief presentation on FABCYLE and why their bins were all around the Wilson School of Design building, I was inspired by her charisma and what she had accomplished. My instructors for this studio class drew a great connection to what I would be attempting to do, with what Irina had already accomplished, and I am anticipating conducting primary research and speaking with her because I am sure she will have some very insightful comments.
McKenzie, I. (February, 2020). Founder Story: The Beginning of FABCYCLE by Founder Irina McKenzie. FABCYCLE. Retrieved from https://www.fabcycle.shop/blogs/journal/beginnings
McKenzie, I. (n.d.). The War Against Textile Waste. FABCYLE. Retrieved from http://www.metrovancouver.org/events/community-breakfasts/Presentations/IrinaMolohovskyFABCYCLE.pdf