GIFFT program recycles unused fabrics into quilts
By Heath E. Combs -- Furniture Today, 11/17/2008 12:00:00 AM
ORLANDO, Fla. — Furniture industry fabrics that may have once gone to a landfill are finding a better use at the Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital here.
Quilts produced from discarded industry fabrics were first delivered to young patients here recently through the Green Initiative for Furniture and Textiles, or GIFFT, program.
The initial delivery was made by representatives of participants in GIFFT, including Rooms To Go, Quilts for Kids, Sunbury Textiles, Disney Epcot and Avangard Innovative. About 60 quilts were delivered, according to Linda Arye, founding president of Quilts For Kids.
The quilt program was created by SWIFT, the Sample Waste Initiative for Furniture and Textiles, and by Houston-based recycling company Avangard Innovative and Yardley, Pa.-based charity Quilts for Kids.
Quilts for Kids is a network of volunteer quilters founded in 2000 by interior designer Linda Ayre. The volunteers make quilts for children who are in hospitals or other care facilities, and has kept over a million pounds of fabric out of landfills.
Seffner, Fla.-based Rooms To Go is one of the contributors to the GIFFT program and has donated about 6,000 pounds of fabric so far.
“Fabric is no longer being sent to landfills and at the same time we get to help out other people,” said Nick Macnichol, senior industrial engineer at the retailer, who participated in the delivery.
Program officials said more than 10 tons of fabric may be donated this year.
The program kicked off in July when a ton of excess or discontinued fabric was collected at Rooms To Go's Lakeland, Fla., distribution center.
