ABSTRACT
Restaurants and banquet tables require clean tablecloths and napkins for each sitting of customers, creating textile waste when stains, holes and other damages are created from continual use. This chapter utilizes the term 'repurpose(d)' to define the collecting and sorting of discarded materials as the resource for new products designed and manufactured in the location of discard. It investigates a collaborative effort in the city of San Francisco among government, business and a local trade organisation for the purpose of converting textile waste into a manufacturing resource. In 2011, a core group of People Wear SF board members launched the San Francisco Tablecloth Repurposing Project. Exploring methods to reduce dependence on new or primary fibre and textile product supply chains and shift to usage of the discarded or secondary fibre and textile product supply chain is paramount.
