Learn how Australia’s leader in textile recovery and recycling, UPPAREL, is turning textile waste into a valuable resource with limitless potential.

Riley Aickins, UPPAREL’s Partnerships & UPtex Manager shares how UPPAREL turns textile waste into a huge range of products we can use in our homes, from pet bedding through to acoustic panelling and site signage (plus more).

Listen to the episode now.

Hello! This is Episode 333, and in it, I’m sharing information about an amazing company that’s Australia’s leader in textile recovery and recycling.

UPPAREL, based in Melbourne, Victoria, is a BCorp Certified company, and is an award-winning leader in textile recovery and recycling, providing convenient solutions to textile waste for both consumers and businesses.

UPPAREL first came onto my radar when previous podcast guest, Joost Bakker, shared some of their incredible products on social media. 

As Joost is super passionate about zero waste products, he was at the UPPAREL Factory and showing the panels being made from recycled textiles, and it was amazing to see the process and the volume of waste UPPAREL are able to recycle. Waste that would normally go to landfill.

So, I knew I wanted to get UPPAREL on the podcast, and put them on your radar, as I think there’s some really exciting opportunities and options about how their products could be used in various applications for your project.

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE NOW

In this episode, I’m speaking with Riley Aickin who is the Partnerships & UPtex Manager at UPPAREL.

Riley is going to take us through how UPPAREL turns textile waste into a huge range of products we can use in our homes, from pet bedding all the way through to acoustic panelling and site signage. 

And given that Australia has just overtaken the USA as the world’s largest consumer of textiles globally, and on average Australians purchase 27kg of new textiles and then discard around 23kg into landfill annually … UPPAREL is responding to a huge problem we have here.

As UPPAREL’s Partnerships & UPtex Manager, Riley helps Australian businesses turn their textile waste into a valuable resource with limitless potential.

Supporting the circular economy through the creation of high-value recycled products that can be recycled indefinitely, Riley, in his role, strives to reduce the use of virgin materials and leave the world in a better place for generations to come.

It blows my mind to think that, every 10 minutes, 6,000kg of textile waste is discarded into Australian landfills. 

And of course: using less, buying less, not subscribing to fast fashion and making more considered purchases of textiles generally is definitely needed to deal with this issue. 

However, it’s really exciting to share the work of a company like UPPAREL to highlight how textile recycling can and is being done in a productive, innovative and useful way.

And also to share how you can access their services to recycle your clothing and textiles, and potentially use their recycled products in your home and lifestyle too.

RESOURCES:

UPPAREL website >>> https://upparel.com.au/ 

Get in touch with Riley Aickin here >>> [email protected] 

Summary of process >>> https://youtu.be/X7ytLzdctC8?si=YhTQIWyNcao3bHTo 

Launch of Uptex >>> https://youtu.be/ya5njeQUoOg?si=LgoRkPd2_JaAfbQi 

Want to learn more about a Zero Waste approach to building and renovating? Check out these podcast episodes with Joost Bakker >>>

• Episode 266 ‘Future Food System: the Zero Waste House, with Joost Bakker’ >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-future-food-system-zero-waste-house-joost-bakker/ 
• Episode 267 ‘Building with Zero Waste: Greenhouse by Joost, with Joost Bakker’ >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-building-with-zero-waste-greenhouse-by-joost/ 

Access the support and guidance you need to be confident and empowered when renovating and building your family home inside my flagship online program, HOME METHOD >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/the-home-method/

Learn more about how to interview and select the right builder with the Choose Your Builder mini-course >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/choose-your-builder 

Access my free online workshop “Your Project Plan” >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/projectplan