Cuban Migrant Establishes Uruguay's First Textile Surplus Bank

For many businesses, tons of fabric scraps destined for the landfill were just waste. However, for Yuniet Morrel Quintero, a Cuban migrant, these scraps represented an opportunity to create jobs, support entrepreneurs, and mitigate environmental impact. Three years after relocating to Uruguay, she founded the country's first Textile Surplus Bank, a groundbreaking initiative that bridges the gap between companies and cooperatives, designers, and social organizations to repurpose materials that would otherwise be discarded.

The story of Morrel was featured in El País Uruguay's Domingo supplement, highlighting how a skill acquired in Cuba evolved into a pioneering circular economy project.

Yuniet arrived in Montevideo in 2023 with her husband and their son, who was just over a year old. The family chose Uruguay over other Latin American destinations, dismissing Brazil due to the language barrier. Nonetheless, adapting to the new environment proved challenging.

"The hardest part was being seven thousand kilometers away from family, with no grandparents or friends to help with the child," she recalled.

Shortly after, she began working at a sewing workshop, where she was taken aback by the wastefulness she observed: high-quality fabric scraps, waistbands, and textiles were routinely discarded at the end of each workday.

When she left that job to care for her son, she used her severance to buy a second-hand industrial sewing machine. She started crafting pillows, aprons, and other home items using the surplus materials that her previous employer continued to provide.

This method of using every piece of fabric was not new to her. In Cuba, she had learned to sew as a teenager in a household where resources were scarce and nothing was wasted. Fabric scraps became quilts and other household items—a practice she now recognizes as circular economy, although she wasn't familiar with the term back then.

The project took an unexpected turn when she was invited at the last minute to participate in the Expo Uruguay Sostenible after other exhibitors dropped out.

"Because I didn't have many items, I spent three days almost without sleep, fueled by coffee and sewing," she remembered.

She sold everything she brought and discovered a community keen on responsible consumption and material reuse, inspiring her to develop a more ambitious idea.

This led to the creation of the Textile Surplus Bank, operating under the Looper Life brand. The system links companies that produce fabric waste with cooperatives, entrepreneurs, and social organizations capable of repurposing them. Logos and identifiers are removed before distribution, as per agreements with companies.

"It can go to an organization like UruVene, which supports migrants with many needs, or it can be provided to entrepreneurs for reuse," she explained.

To persuade businesses to join the project, Morrel presents a simple argument: the funds currently spent on sending these materials to landfills can be redirected to create new opportunities for others.

"More than selling textile surplus, what I offer is awareness of a pressing reality," she asserted.

The initiative has been awarded the Uruguay Natural seal, recognizing it as an ambassador of the country's brand, and it has received support from the We Are Rabbit incubator to digitize the registration and management of recovered materials.

Additionally, Morrel was a driving force behind the Montevideo Sustainable Fashion Week, whose inaugural edition was held in June 2026 at Montevideo's City Hall and declared of national interest.

Her story also highlights the increasing presence of Cubans in Uruguay, a favored destination for migrants from the island in recent years. Official figures indicate that over 22,000 Cubans entered the country in 2025, attracted by its institutional stability and the ease of regularizing their immigration status.

For Yuniet, the philosophy underpinning her project has roots far older than her business venture.

"Economics can no longer be linear; it must be circular," she summarizes. An idea she began practicing long before leaving Cuba, when she learned at home that no piece of fabric should go to waste.