Giving fabric a new life: Quebec business tailors a new role in the circular economy

A Quebec-based company is tailoring itself a place in the upcycling industry by breathing new life into discarded fabric — and it has no plans to slow down. 

Business and life partners Maude Girard and Gabrielle Huppé founded Next Chance six years ago. From their workshop on the south shore of Montreal, the pair and their team use discarded textiles from the fashion industry to make reusable gift wrapping or decorative items.

“According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 12 per cent of all textiles produced worldwide are thrown away without ever being used,” said Girard in an interview.

And the situation is no different in Quebec, where nearly 344,000 metric tons of textiles were disposed of in 2023, according to the latest data from Recyc-Québec. This represents an increase of more than 114 per cent since 2011.

Faced with this reality, Girard and Huppé came up with the innovative idea of collecting fabric scraps, end-of-run lots, or rolls with manufacturing defects to give them a second life.

“We’ll go to designers and manufacturers and partner with them,” said Huppé. “We’ll be able to collect (the fabric) before it ends up either in a landfill or in the recycling stream.”

Since launching their business in 2020, the two women have drawn on their creativity to offer an ever-growing range of products, including reusable gift wrap, tote bags, tablecloths and hair accessories.

“We’re always looking for ways to give a second life to the different types of fabrics we recover,” said Girard.

While the textiles recovered from the fashion industry are of good quality, the entrepreneurs aren’t ruling out the possibility of one day using fabric from discarded clothing, even if that presents more challenges.

Huppé gave the example of a garment made from a blend of cotton and polyester.

“You can’t reprocess the fabric because it’s all mixed together, and there’s no process that allows you to recycle a fabric like that,” she said. “That’s why, right now, it all ends up as waste.”

“We’ve been working on this project for several years now, but it hasn’t been implemented yet. It'll be rolled out in the coming years,” added her partner.

Since its inception, Next Chance has managed to salvage 56,090 metres of fabric — the equivalent of 20 times the length of the Jacques-Cartier Bridge. The two women aim to reach 90,000 metres of salvaged fabric by next Earth Day, on April 22, 2027.

“We still have a ways to go, but really, with all the enthusiasm we’ve generated — and even the great partnerships we’ve just signed — we think we’ll be able to reach our goal,” said Huppé.

The holiday season is the time of year when they collect the most fabric, said Girard.

Next Chance currently employs 14 people, both full-time and part-time.

Six years after its founding, customer demand continues to grow, allowing the two women to offer their products to the rest of Canada.

“We source almost exclusively from Quebec right now. Eventually, if we recover everything there is to recover, we’ll be able to branch out a little,” said Girard.

“There’s so much fabric discarded by the fashion industry — the quantities are astronomical. So really, we haven’t reached the point where we can recover everything that’s available in Canada,” she added.

While they already distribute their products to 200 retail locations across the country, the entrepreneurs plan to expand beyond the country's borders in the coming years, with an eye toward the New York, California and even European markets.

“Eventually, we’ll begin our international expansion in the United States, ... but within the next five to 10 years, we’ll want to officially expand into Europe,” said Huppé, who was on a business trip to Paris this week to explore that market.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2026.

By Audrey Sanikopoulos | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.