No matter how hard we try, we all generate trash. And the fabrics we don’t want anymore — clothes, towels, blankets, rags — are harder to recycle than they might seem, as most fabrics are a mix of fibers and material types, requiring different techniques that can’t be done on a large scale.

A local weaver implements sustainable techniques at an artist-run industrial mill in Humboldt Park–but even so, there’s still fabric scraps leftover. So she’s trying out a community approach to deal with these scraps. It involves a people-powered fabric shredder.