A variety of upcycled items.
Public Thread is a nonprofit organization that kept 16.8 tons of textile waste from landfills in 2024. The organization uses textiles and upcycles them into new and exciting products such as totes, backpacks, pouches, pillows, poufs, and more.
Janay Brower
Founded by Janay Brower in 2016, Public Thread has trained hundreds of people on sewing, workforce development, and marketing. In a recent presentation at Women’s City Club Janay told us about their community-wide approach to waste diversion. Did you know that Michigan ranks third in the US in number of billboards? The vinyl used for them is perfect for making into recycling totes, stadium seats, and picnic blankets.
A new project, Material Activation Lab, is underway at Public Thread. “This Activation Lab is about experimentation, investigation, and creating economic opportunity for designers, artists, makers, and creators. It's also about finding solutions for how to repurpose large volumes of jeans (denim) within our community with creatives/artists/designers.”
We are intrigued with this process and will schedule a tour of their facility very soon!
To learn more about Public Thread visit their website: https://www.publicthread.org.
Looking at upcycled product samples.
