Millions of old uniforms, medical scrubs and workwear will be diverted from landfill and repurposed into valuable new resources, thanks to a new partnership between BlockTexx and Workwear Group.

Workwear Group is known for its heritage Australian workwear and uniform brands NNT, Hard Yakka and King Gee. The company manufactures and distributes apparel to clients across a broad range of industries including industrial, emergency services, health, professional services and the public sector, with uniform clients including Qantas and ANZ amongst others.

Workwear Group will supply old and surplus uniforms and clothing to BlockTexx, who has created world-leading technology to give new life to unwanted textiles and clothing.

The new agreement is expected to divert about 100 tonnes of unwanted clothing from landfill in the first year but could expand beyond that target as Workwear Group’s clients embrace the innovative program.

BlockTexx Co-Founders Adrian Jones (above right) and Graham Ross (above left) said the textile recycling is achieved through a combination of chemical recovery technology and advanced manufacturing processes to produce high grade cellulose and rPET pellets that can be used for a range of industry applications in manufacturing, building and construction, agriculture, infrastructure, and flexible fabrics.

“Our S.O.F.T. (separation of fibre technology) process is a commercial scale solution to eradicate textile waste and breaking down no-longer needed clothing and textiles,” Mr Ross said.

“We offer companies such as Workwear Group a viable solution to reduce textile waste and turn no-longer-needed uniform pieces into a valuable resource that can be used again.”

Workwear Group General Manager of Uniforms, Matthew Blashki said that Workwear Group was pleased to be the first uniform provider to adopt the leading technology behind BlockTexx.

“Workwear Group is incredibly proud to partner with BlockTexx in delivering a sustainable end of life solution for Uniforms. It is our goal to reduce our impact on the environment, through minimising the amount of textile landfill, while delivering a world class product and service to our customers. Partnering with BlockTexx supports us on our mission.

“We believe that our customers will embrace the innovation that BlockTexx offers, knowing that thousands of end of life uniforms are being redirected from landfill and put to good use. We look forward to connecting more of them with the BlockTexx solution in the coming months.”

The materials that BlockTexx will receive from the Workwear Group and other foundation partners will be processed at the company’sstate-of-the-art textile resource recovery facilitywhich will open soon in Logan, Queensland. This facility will be the first in Australia.

“Our Logan site will realise the potential of our years of research and transform our findings into a commercially viable process that will reduce textile waste,” Mr Jones said.

“In the first year of operation, our Logan facility will recycle 4000 tonnes of textile waste, create up to 30 new full-time jobs and provide up to $43 million economic impact to the local area.

“Over the next four years, we anticipate the creation of more than 140 jobs and more than 50,000 tonnes of recycled textile and a total CO2 offset of 1,250,000 tonnes (based on annualised amounts).

“We are proud to work with such an iconic Australian brand such as Workwear Group to achieve this and take our hats off to them for putting in the hard yakka to make it possible.”

With the Australian Circular Textile Association estimating nearly one million tonnes of leather and textiles sent to landfill in Australia each year, BlockTexx arealready planning to open a second facility in either New South Wales or Victoria.