CASE STUDY. Virgin Australia Uniforms + Workwear
Virgin Australia's staff participated in a national take-back to divert uniforms & workwear from landfill to be reused, redesigned, repurposed & resold through the Circular Textile Waste Service.
Trained disability enterprise teams sorted, dismantled & re-distributed through various circular streams based in Australia.
CIRCULAR CENTRE'S CIRCULAR TEXTILE WASTE SERVICE
DESIGN OUT WASTE AND POLLUTION
The Circular Centre has a value chain of initiatives under the one umbrella, transforming how companies can create and dispose of garment and textile waste to become 100% circular.
The focus is to minimise carbon emissions and pollution, to keep all resources onshore, create jobs (especially for disability enterprises), divert raw materials and products to eco-entrepreneurs to REUSE, REDESIGN and RESELL and deliver a financially sustainable service to customers.
The journey began three years ago with Circular Centre's sister company STSC. Sustainable Textile Supply Chain develop and sell wholesale eco-textiles to garment and fashion manufacturers world-wide.
Director Alison Jose went on to create the Circular Textile Waste Service to encourage closing the loop, keeping resources within Australia, ensuring the replacement of toxic synthetics, as well as removing existing plastic fibres from the textile supply chain to be reused in safer products.
To paraphrase William McDonough of Cradle to Cradle, we want to ensure we "do good, not just less bad"*.
DELIVERING A CIRCULAR TEXTILE WASTE SERVICE
DISABILITY ENTERPRISE PROCUREMENT - BUYABILITY NDS
Alison Jose was working with Simon Scrase from Buyability NDS to connect with disability enterprises nationally and increase employment opportunities for people with a disability through the management of socially responsible procurement opportunities for Disability Enterprises.
BuyAbility is an initiative of National Disability Services (NDS) aimed at growing supported employment to give people with disability the opportunity to participate in the workforce.
Alison modelled the service on the NDIS to work with DE staff to create teams and human centered jobs based on the individual and their skills set and interests.
We chose Achieve Australia based in Newington, Sydney for the CTWS Pilot program as they also have two Sewing Basket stores working with textiles and many staff members have existing knowledge of textiles.
ACHIEVE AUSTRALIA
Working closely with Leanne Larche, Operations Manager at Achieve Australia and the team over an 8 week in-depth training process the Pilot was to also develop a Policy and Procedures Manual.
Project Manager Ginia Chu worked to develop the circular streams and enable the Circular Centre and Buyability to offer, train and deliver this service with any DE nation-wide.
The DE's role is to work with the Circular Centre's clients to manage the collection, transport, sorting and dismantling and redistribution of the materials to the various circular streams.
James Koerbin, Purpose Instigator at Virgin Australia contacted Simon during the Covid pandemic requesting help to safely divert uniforms and workwear from landfill. Simon introduced James to the Circular Centre and continued to keep in touch and monitor progress.
VIRGIN AUSTRALIA - UNIFORMS + WORKWEAR TAKE-BACK CIRCULAR
TAKE-BACK + COLLECTION
Virgin Australia coordinated a company wide staff take-back to divert all unwearable and useable uniforms including Pilot jackets, caps, inflight uniforms, hi-vis workwear, canvas work trousers, gumboots, fabric lunchboxes and carry-on luggage.
They were delivered to Virgin offices at Sydney airport where Achieve Australia Disability Enterprise collected the waste in their 1 tonne truck.
To ensure Virgin Australia's strict IP and security it was imperative to identify and note in our Contract exactly which products required nil, partial or complete destruction along with issuing final Destruction Certificates. We ensure trims such as buttons with Virgin logo and pilot stripes are removed and destroyed.
VIRGIN AUSTRALIA'S USABLE, UNWEARABLE + UNUSABLE ITEMS
SORT, CLASSIFY, DISMANTLE & RE-DISTRIBUTE
The team at Achieve Australia Disability Enterprise are trained to sort the "waste". Streams are categorised accordingly fibre and garment type and any garments or products that can be immediately diverted to another circular stream that will not require dismantling are re-sold to a customers who use them.
The DE's role is to work with the Circular Centre's clients to manage the collection, transport, sorting and dismantling and redistribution of the materials to the various circular streams.
CIRCULAR STREAMS
CIRCULAR STREAM #1.
100% MIXED TEXTILES; SYNTHETICS & BLENDS
The majority of the mixed blended textile waste is called the "everything else" pile during the sorting stage. This ensures the sorting and dismantling process is fast as these fibre types not only do not require separation, but the synthetics act as the glue for these non-woven products.
This is the safest method to lock in synthetic microfibres to ensure they do not end up being recycled back into yarn and garments that will continue to shed plastic both during production and in domestic washing machines for 200-1000 years.
This hi-speed efficient process has a capacity of up to 12 ton per day, and 40,000 pa. It produces a vertical layered high strength bonded fibrous pad of various densities between 60gsm to 2500gsm and thickness between 3mm to 100mm.
SAFE END PRODUCTS INCLUDE:
- Acoustic ceiling panels and tiles.
- Acoustic decorative wall panels.
- Exhibition display panels.
- Carpet and floating floor underlays
- Sound deadening technical textiles.
- Automotive & Marine reduced weight flat and molded insulator and acoustics products.
- Mattress toppings and furniture fills.
- Blankets.
- Cad Cam Cutting table pads.
- Carpet tile comfort inlay.
- Filtration, air liquid and extraction flue cook hoods.
- Performance clothing and apparel.
HI-VIS GEAR REUSED & REDESIGNED
People + Planet = Purpose
Assembled Threads purchased a quantity of re-usable hi-vis jackets and vests. They first cut out the Virgin Australia logos which are returned to the Circular Textile Waste Service to ensure zero waste.
Second step is to reuse and redesign using the textiles, long zippers and hi-vis strips creating "new" workwear items.
Assembled Threads are based in Melbourne and create partnerships with local councils to create employment based sewing hubs, directly engaging with those marginalised in the community.
Their hubs are supported by Holmesglen TAFE with bespoke commercial sewing skills training. They prioritise locally manufactured or climate positive fabrics and apparel components in the products they create.
Assembled Threads focus on simple PPE uniform solutions for government, industry and institutions supported by their established social procurement frameworks. https://www.assembledthreads.com/
100% WOOL USED TO REPLACE POLYSTYRENE
CIRCULAR STREAM #3 - 100% WOOL
PLANET PROTECTOR PACKAGING
Virgin Australia's pilots and inflight crews were issued high quality merino wool cardigans, jumpers and vests.
The buttons and polyester garment tags are removed. We will keep these in storage until we are able to pass on to Planet Protector Packaging to will repurpose it using felt-like machinery.
Planet Protector Packaging. manufacture commercially viable, sustainable cold chain packaging. They deliver high performing, versatile thermal packaging solutions, guaranteed to move your products from A to B in perfect condition.
"Our mission is to remove polystyrene from our planet by providing cost effective, sustainable, eco-friendly packaging. We design with the circular economy in mind, utilising waste materials and giving them new life through our products."
PILOT UNIFORMS BECOME FASHION
It is essential to remove all items showing they are from Virgin Airlines to maintain strict security and IP. After the buttons and stripes are removed the high quality Virgin Airlines re-usable jackets are diverted to fashion designers.
We look forward to seeing a new range of fashion garments made from these jackets.
TRIMS, BUTTONS, ZIPPERS REMOVED FROM "UNWEARABLE" GARMENTS
WORNE.WORLD
WORNE.WORLD
WORNE.WORLD
The disability teams have been trained to remove items and disassemble according to our Policy and Procedure Manuel. They take care to maintain the integrity of as many trims as possible. These are then repackaged and sent to Worne.
Worne is a Melbourne start-up that promotes designers to "Re-think their resources. They are a supplier of fashion hardware with history. Creating worth for wear.
WORNE.WORLD
WORNE.WORLD
ZIPPERS USED ON BAGS TO REPLACE REPLACE PLASTIC BAGS
Original bags used are large plastic striped bags with zippers that break very easily and are too heavy and cumbersome for one person.
The zippers removed from the Virgin Airline carry-on luggage are removed and then sewn onto large bags that we made using high quality furniture fabrics donated by Stylecraft.
The Circular Centre have had two volunteers Deborah and Elan who come to the showroom twice a week to sew the new bags.
PLASTIC PACKAGING.
All plastic from wrapped pallets and bags are repurposed by Varlea Recycling who are only 15 minutes drive from Achieve Australia. This trip is put into one of the round trips that Achieve does in the ute or truck to re-distribute items from an amalgamation of jobs to ensure we minimise our transport and carbon emissions.
CERTIFICATION + LCA
When the job is completed Virgin Australia receive a report, Destruction Certificates and Life Cycle Assessment that includes an estimated amount of carbon emissions they have mitigated. The Circular Centre are working to convert this mitigation into rebates via the federal government's Emissions Reduction Fund.
Virgin Australia also receive the Circular Centre's Zero Textile Waste Certification and become circular economy leaders, mitigate carbon emissions, reduce pollution and work towards their Sustainable Development Goals.
NEXT STEP. FULL CIRCULAR SOLUTIONS
Read further about the entire circular solutions offered by the Circular Centre and our partners to deliver services that include 3D Design, home compostable and sustainable textiles and the growing list of circular streams showing closed loop solutions.