Textile Labor
- There are 75 million garment workers worldwide with an average wage of $3.16 per hour
- We need more living wage employment in Grand Rapids
- Public Thread is working to become an employee-owned business
- We will be one of only a few cut & sew manufacturers that are worker-owned in the U.S.
The Environment
- 16 billion tons of textile waste is created in the U.S. each year
- 85% of textile waste comes from manufacturing
- Kent County’s textile waste amounts to tens of thousands of pounds per week and is valued at $3.2 million lost per year
- Estimated value of discarded textiles in the U.S. is $460 billion
