Australia Post Launches Recycled Soft-Plastic Satchel for Circular Clothing Program

Sustainable Shift: AusPost Satchel Uses iQRenew Recycled Soft-Plastic Material

iQRenew is promoting and commercializing recycled household soft-plastic material to customers' doors. These plastics are the same ones used to create a satchel for the company’s national circular clothing mission, led by R.M. Williams and Australia Post. The satchel is created from full-volume Australian household soft plastics that iQRenew technologically recycles. This also ensures end-of-life recycling of the mailer.

This material is prepared into a film, then printed and converted by RollsPack into an Australia Post-branded mailer that is timely enough for the postal network. Further, Australia Post states that this also works as a passport to help navigate the circular system. In this ongoing pilot process, R.M.Williams customers can buy the satchel at checkout and return T-shirts and used T-shirts from any brand.

This is the best promotional strategy to achieve sustainability and raise awareness of it. After the return of the clothes, the satchels enter the Australia Post network and are parcelled to BlockTexx and REMONDIS Australia for segregation and processing into new, high-quality materials.

The executive general manager community, stakeholder and sustainability engagement at Australia Post, Jane Anderson, said, “The pilots focus on making the cloth recycling more reachable, elaborating the satchel as a number one 100 per cent recycled material made in Australia. The clothes will be recycled locally after the process comes to an end, which will initially close the loop.”

Chief sustainability officer at Australia Post, Richard Pittard, said, “This is all about understanding and learning. This is a planned purpose-built supply move to test the co-production efforts of scalable and practical solutions to retain textiles' position in circulation and keep them out of the landfill.” Further, he proudly accepts being referred to as the satchel, which is generally made from post-consumer recycled material. For Australia Post, it is the first and best effort and achievement.

Australia Post outlines the process in a staged format: customers purchase the satchel with their order, pack suitable, qualified garments, and leave it in a red street posting box, at a Post Office, or in a parcel locker. Further, after transportation, the satchel is classified and opened, and the products are recycled into new materials, which are then used to make new products. This new initiative towards sustainability is a commendable strategy move by all the companies that partnered in this process, and valuable funding by the Seamless Circular Clothing Textiles Fund.