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Rachel Ceruti Choi

Community Director at FABSCRAP & Founder of Reclypt

Meet The Changemaker
Rachel Ceruti Choi is a sustainability leader dedicated to reducing textile waste and promoting circular fashion solutions. As Community Director at FABSCRAP and founder of Reclypt, she works to connect communities with innovative ways to reuse, recycle, and extend the life of textiles. Her work helps make sustainability more accessible while encouraging greater responsibility throughout the fashion industry.
Why Their Work Matters
The fashion industry produces enormous amounts of textile waste each year, making circular solutions more important than ever. Through her work with FABSCRAP and Reclypt, Rachel is helping create practical systems that keep valuable materials out of landfills and in use for longer. Her efforts highlight the power of innovation and community action in building a more sustainable future for fashion.
The Conversation
From building communities around circular fashion to tackling the growing challenge of textile waste, Rachel Ceruti Choi offers a unique perspective on creating meaningful change within the fashion industry. In this conversation, she answered 5 questions I asked which shared insights from her work, discussed the importance of collaboration, and provided practical advice for individuals looking to make more sustainable choices.

You've worked to build communities around circular fashion through both Reclypt and FABSCRAP. Why do you believe community is such an important part of creating a more sustainable fashion industry?

"I always say that circular fashion is not possible without community. I can't swap my clothes with you if I don't know you. We can't be reusing each other's materials or selling on Depop if we don't know each other. So, it's truly not possible to have a circular system—which is keeping clothes in circulation and out of landfill—without community.

Less formally, it's just fun, right? It's so fun to share your creativity, your self-expression, and your personality through clothes with your friends and with like-minded people. That's where friendships are formed, and a lot of advocacy has come out of mending circles and quilting clubs. That's why community is so important."

Many people hear terms like "circular fashion" but aren't sure what they mean. How would you explain circular fashion to someone who is just beginning to learn about sustainability?

"The term always changes. Upcycling fashion never used to be a thing. I think understanding circular fashion starts with knowing that the words are gonna change probably next month because it's always changing, and there's always different words to describe things. But I personally like to say circular fashion instead of sustainable fashion because it implies action. Circularity, to me, means doing something to keep clothes out of landfills, whether that's swapping with a friend or mending here and there.

Sustainable fashion, to me, just reads as more passive. It reads more as, 'I am just sitting back and letting it happen to me.' Circular fashion is one of those terms where, when you're entering a conversation, you have to define what it means to the parties in that conversation because there really is no standard term or definition. In the books, however, it's essentially the ultimate elimination of waste, with waste being material. So, when a T-shirt is at the end of its life, it goes back into either the textile stream or into another industry as a raw product.

So, I think the most important part when using words like circularity is that it's describing a concept, a mission, or a vision, and it's not an adjective for an existing brand. An existing brand might have a circular initiative, but that does not mean that they are producing circular fashion."

"Actions towards circularity is a lot more important than saying this is circularity."

FABSCRAP works to divert textile waste from landfills before consumers ever see it. What surprised you most when you first learned about the scale of waste generated by the fashion industry?

"Wow, I mean, where do I even begin? What comes to mind first is just the scale of how much is being wasted and how out of control the waste is. It's easy to point to post-consumer waste and say, 'Well, people aren't wearing their clothes long enough, or brands aren't making clothes that are durable, right?' But in pre-consumer waste, you can point to the mills, you can point to designers, you can point to the whole industry and how frivolous it is.

So, I think it's the scale of it and the kind of daunting fact of where to even begin. Where do we even start to eliminate this material? It is so hidden. It's just hidden—at least from my standpoint. I don't come from a fashion background. I didn't know this was happening. It's very hidden, very 'hush-hush.' Even people in the industry only see their brand's waste. And then you multiply that by 900 brands, and that's just the New York City area. Imagine how much there is in the whole world.

So, I guess for me, what was surprising is how much there is. It really is just everyone and everything contributing."

For young people who care about sustainability but feel overwhelmed by the size of the problem, what are some practical steps they can take to make a difference through their clothing choices?

"I always say, just spread the word. Telling people that there is a lot of waste happening is going to change someone's life. Reuse and swap the clothes you got from a swap. Wear the clothes you mended. Post about it on your social media. Talk about where you like to shop when you thrift, where you like to find your shoes, and where to find thread when you mend.

It's a long game, so it's not one easy, quick fix. Just continue to be that person who is doing these things because so many times, someone that I've not heard from in a long time—or never heard from at all—will knock and say, 'Hey, you do a lot of the same fashion. Where do you shop, or what should I do?' So, you'll be that person for somebody when they're ready for that point in their journey. It also does eliminate the idea of shaming, and it allows for grace as well. We're all on different journeys, we're all in different spots, and we're all going toward the same goal. It's not really an easy answer, but I'd say, more largely, just keep doing what you're doing to keep clothes out of landfills.

So, having said that, I love a swap. You're with like-minded people, and you're getting new clothes for free, essentially. You can also get rid of clothes that you weren't gonna wear—a win-win. I also love a thrifting moment, a good Depop moment. I'm pretty obsessed with eBay; I've been obsessed with eBay for a few years. They're really on their game for circular fashion, and they're actually using the term circular fashion.

And lastly, mending. There's so many good YouTube videos and local mending circles or clubs. There are so many good videos on how to repair this, how to repair that. It's also just a great way to be creative. As you get older, there are fewer and fewer places to be creative. So, mending your clothes is a great way to have fun and scratch that creative itch."

If you could change one thing about the way people think about clothing and consumption, what would it be and why?

"There's so many. I would start with the fiber. I would love for people to rethink the fibers that they're wearing and learn more about those fibers. When I talk about that, it could be cotton, polyester, rayon, elastane, or a mix of all of those—and more.

I like to start by rethinking our relationship with fibers, especially those that contain polyester. People like to talk badly about polyester, but it was created for a reason. It's much easier to care for. So there's a reason it's there, but there are also places where it shouldn't be.

Similarly, clothing takes a lot of water to produce. So, I would have people really consider that. I would even go as far as teaching it in schools, or at least making it part of a month-long lesson. I think a lot of people don't realize that some clothes come from plants. On the other side, some clothes come from oil or plastic. So,  just learning that—and then using what you know to make the right decision for you."

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