Behind the Seams: Textile Recycling at APT

Posted April 20, 2026

Textile Recycle Blog Banner2026

Behind the Seams: Textile Recycling at APT

Every year, APT's Costume Department works to build, revamp and style hundreds of costume items throughout the season. And while some costume pieces are able to be reused over and over again, other pieces are only in the spotlight for a short time.

After +45 years of building beautiful costumes, storage space has become tight and a focus on sustainability has become pivotal. We talked with Associate Costume Director Rose Kaczmarowski about textile recycling in the costume shop and other ways APT is working to be a better scene partner to the environment.

What is textile recycling? And what does it look like in APT’s Costume Shop?

Textile recycling involves the reuse or redistribution of garments, fabrics, and fiber to prevent them being added to a landfill or waste stream. People may not realize it, but the fashion industry is the second most polluting industry in the world, after the oil and gas sector (GENeco, 2026) Fashion is the visual communicator of costume design! We are tied to these global issues and are interested in doing our part to reduce waste.

There are two categories of textile recycling: upcycling or downcycling. Upcycling involves reusing garments or fabrics for other projects. Downcycling involves recycling the textiles into new raw materials, with a variety of innovative uses.

For the last few seasons, we’ve had a 32 Gallon plastic bin in a central location of the costume shop. Costume staff is encouraged to put fabric trimmings, scraps from cutting garments, worn out garments, or mock-ups in the bin as they clean up their areas after completing a show. In 2025, the bin was full to overflowing by the end of June and again in August.

In the coming season, we are planning to de-centralize the collection of textile waste in an effort to match the needs of our non-profit partners. In essence, sorting upcycling from downcycling items as we go. Retold Fabric Scrap Bags will be distributed to each team so they may collect scraps for downcycling during the process of making and altering costumes. The large bin will be reserved for upcycling items like functional garments or larger pieces of fabric.

First Hand Aaron Torres works on a pattern in the costume shop.

How did the Costume Shop become interested in textile recycling? What has been the history behind this project?

Brenna Budic, Assistant Costume Director from 2022-2024, established a dedicated collection bin for waste textiles in response to the large quantities of fabric scraps generated by the Costume Shop. Otherwise-unusable fabric scraps and garments with no resale value can sometimes be donated to charities that in turn sell the scrap to recyclers that create products like insulation. Goodwill used to fill that niche, but has become unreliable in recent years. Nancy Horns, seasonal Float Stitcher, alerted us to an organization in Madison called Babies & Beyond that collected textile waste to re-craft or sell on to a recycler. Over those seasons we worked with them, Brenna estimates she delivered more than twenty large garbage bags of textile waste to their facilities.

Why is textile recycling important at APT?

We create work in these beautiful woods, in these natural areas and we respect them. Making a concerted effort to reduce our waste ties us to this land, binding us more deeply to our creative home here at APT.

What type of materials do you donate to be recycled? And to where?

Great question! This can get a little complicated based on our partners and what their potential reuse will be.

Fabric: "Fat quarters" (18” X 22”) or greater will go to the Textile Arts Center of Madison (TAC) or ARTS Mineral Point. Detailed guidelines for donations at Madison Textile Arts Center (TAC) can be found here. Whereas, woven cotton and knits will go to ARTS Mineral Point for rug making workshops

Fabric Scraps, Ribbons/Trims, Thread: This is where the Retold Fabric Scrap Bag comes in.

  • Approved materials for Retold collection: fabric, yarn, thread, stabilizers, quilt batting, felt, nylon and natural straw in textile form and elastic
  • Unapproved materials for Retold collection: leather, pvc, vinyl, plastic coated goods, neoprene, foam, down, wet/chemically contaminated goods, or hardware (zippers, hooks, snaps, etc.)

Individual collection bags will be shipped away and replaced with a new empty one. Learn more about Retold Recycling here.

Costume mock-ups: Costume mock-ups are garments constructed using muslin to represent a final product during a fitting. After fittings are complete, mock-ups will be deconstructed and larger pieces kept for reuse within the costume shop. Pieces that could have a 6.5” X 6.5” square cut from them will go to the River Valley Stitchers for use in teaching people to make quilt squares. Pieces smaller than the above will be deposited in the Retold bag.

Constructed Garments/Shoes: These items need to be clean, wearable and in good condition. Our APT show labels are removed and then these will go to a local thrift store like Sunny Seconds in Cross Plains or Goodwill's Madison West location.

Allison Durst, Nancy Horns and Abby Alvarez work at sewing machines.


What other ways does the Costume Shop try and stay as eco-conscious as possible?

Following guidelines from the Broadway Green Alliance, the biggest way we stay eco-conscious is the use of what already exists. Whether that be pulling from our costume stock for a costume design, renting or borrowing from other costume stocks, or pulling fabrics from our existing fabric stash for new costume builds or alterations.

Second to that, individual designers may choose to purchase new materials that are ethically sourced or organically produced as budgets allow.

Finally, as our stock fills to capacity we regularly cull items that are in poor condition or are less likely to see another life on our stage. Every few years we have a sale to help those items find a new home. Look out for opportunities to shop our collection on social media!


Do you have any interesting statistics or stories from last year’s recycling project?

We recovered about 4, 32-gallon bins of textile waste in 2025, approximately removing the equivalent of 128 pounds of waste from the landfill.

This was my first year wrapping up our season and working through our recycling project. Our costume shop staff is totally on board with the program! However, I began to recognize how our good intentions could sometimes lead to burdening volunteer driven organizations. Questions like "Are we 'wishfully recycling?'” "At what point is a scrap no longer reusable?" and "Who really wants our stuff?" came up.

Making contact with local quilting guilds, crafty creative friends and forward-thinking organizations to understand their focus took a bit more time than I expected. In the end, we are building more diverse partnerships in the region and found a domestic recycling program in Retold that we are excited to try out in 2026!


Any suggestions for people looking to do some spring cleaning in their own closets this year?

Absolutely. Make sure all of your things are clean and dry. If you are able, donate them to a local thrift store near you, check out the organizations listed above for specific details.

Don’t expect a thrift store to always be ready to accept your donation. For large, specific donations, it's best to ask before assuming they'll take it. Also check to make sure you know if there are specific donations days. Not all organizations accept stuff every day.

If you can afford to participate in a paid recycling program, Retold is the option we’ve chosen to try this year. Terracycle is another excellent organization that sells Zero Waste Boxes for a variety of specific recycling categories.


If people are interested in learning more about textile recycling, what resources do you recommend checking out?

  • The Or Foundation. A public charity operating in both the United States and Ghana since 2011, focused on creating a “justice led circular economy.”
  • The True Cost documentary. A 2015 film detailing the global clothing industry and the disjointed relationship between the price tag we see and the real cost of producing that garment.
  • Suay. A Los Angeles based, 100% vertical sewing and production shop founded in 2017. They upcycle ingeniously!
  • The Environmental Impact of Fast Fashion, Explained by Earth.Org.


A big thank you to Associate Costume Director Rose Kaczmarowski (pictured above) for talking about textile recycling at APT and beyond.

To learn more about supporting APT's mission, click here for ways to be involved.