Five years of re-use, repurpose and recycling impact
This recycling week, Save the Children Op Shops are celebrating five years in partnership with Australia’s leader in textile recovery and recycling, UPPAREL.
And there’s plenty to celebrate, thanks to you, our loyal supporters, and our fantastic partner, UPPAREL, in helping us save the world from over-consumption.
All those T-Shirts, skirts, pants and coats donated to our re-use, repurpose and recycling program have added up to make a huge difference. Since September 2020, our partnership has saved 126,447 items from landfill and raised more than $1.4 million for our life-saving work.
On top of this, over the past year, we’ve hosted fortnightly corporate sorting sessions at UPPAREL, where 106 corporate volunteers from 10 of our partner organisations have volunteered 530 hours, sorting more than 109 pallets of stock (roughly 21,800kg worth!) for distribution to our Op Shops.
This is all in pursuit of our shared goal of ensuring no donated item ends up in landfill. To counter the traditional clothing consumption model of 'take, make and dispose', we've grown our circular model with UPPAREL that makes sure every donated item through our partnership is re-used, recycled or repurposed.   
If you’ve been out of the recycle loop, here’s a reminder of how it works: UPPAREL collects unwanted textiles from individuals and brands across the country, and once it arrives at their facility in Victoria, each and every garment is carefully sorted.
Reusable textiles are distributed amongst Australian-based charities – we're fortunate to receive weekly donations in Victoria and South Australia, and periodical deliveries to Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia.
Items that can't be re-used are recycled – these are further categorised and organised based on the appropriate recycling channel. The majority are recycled into a very fine, fluffy fibre, which is used to replace virgin polyester filling in toys and cushions. And back in 2023, UPPAREL launched UPtex, a completely recycled and recyclable rigid panel material, which can be used to make packaging, signage and homewares! So together we’re making sure nothing goes to waste!
If you have some items you’re ready to part with, you can get onboard the re-use, repurpose and recycling train too by
booking a collection today. You can send UPPAREL 10kg of items for just $35. And you’ll receive a $10 voucher to redeem in-store at a
Save the Children Op Shop near you!