Did you know that in Australia, less than 1% of corporate uniforms are recycled? Sadly, due to a lack of awareness or financial incentives, many companies are taking the short road and are discarding garments into landfill. Total Uniform Solutions are on a mission to change that!
We have been offering uniform recycling and de-branding solutions to clients since 2020, as well as expanding our “design for disassembly” manufacturing processes to consider the uniform's end of life at the very start of the process – the design stage.
One of the biggest challenges with recycling is the cost of manual labour to remove the various elements from a garment (hardware, trimming, labels etc), allowing only the suitable fabric to be processed and recycled back into new textiles.
One innovation that is making this process easier, faster and cheaper is a dissolvable thread which melts under special thermal conditions. When exposed to temperatures over 200° C, the thread melts allowing for easy material sorting and recycling.
The thermal process is 5x faster than traditional disassembly methods and enables the recycling of up to 90% of the original fabric material, instead of the usual 48% obtained after manual or mechanical disassembly.
This thread can be used to sew the entire garment, or used to secure logos or trimmings to an existing garment – making the disassembly process or de-branding more efficient.
De-branding is a popular recycling option as it extends the life of the garment. This solution can be particularly attractive to companies who are rebranding, and who do not wish to go to the cost of replacing and rebranding all uniform items that are in stock-holding or have life still left in the garments. For companies buying uniforms with a rebrand on the horizon, using a thread innovation such as this to fix logos or custom labels could mean only the branding could be changed out – a fraction of the cost of replacing the entire garment.
Angy Anguilar, Production and Ethical Sourcing Coordinator at Total Uniform Solutions says “Using this thread, we'll be able to efficiently remove branding on an industrial scale, allowing the garments to be reused or up-cycled faster, easier and cheaper than current methods. It’s very exciting. And the best part. It looks and acts like any thread.”
If you are interested in exploring using recycling-friendly manufacturing processes in your corporate uniform story, get in touch today.
www.uniform.com.au/uniform-recycling
