Recycling of old St John NT uniforms helps fight against textile waste.
The implementation of new uniforms for paramedic staff in July 2022 brought many obstacles to navigate including the question of what to do with the old uniforms?
St John NT made the commitment to being environmentally friendly with the uniform changeover and researched several options for recycling or disposal of the old uniforms. It was determined that the best option was to engage with textile recycling company UPPAREL.
UPPAREL is Australia and New Zealand’s only direct-to-consumer and commercial textile recovery and recycler and in 2020 was awarded the National Sustainability Champion award by the Australian Retail Association.
Collection containers were made available on station across all locations for crews to return old uniforms.
In total an impressive 900kg of uniforms were sent to the UPPAREL recycling facility to minimise the environmental impact of disposal.
The partnership with UPPAREL resulted in the achievement of 971kg of textile material being diverted from landfill.
The decision to dispose of the uniforms in an environmentally conscious way also resulted 3398.5kg in greenhouse gasses being prevented.St John NT is proud to participate in the overarching mission to eradicate textile waste from landfills and play our part in achieving the greatest possible positive impact on the environment.
Each and every item that comes to UPPAREL avoids landfills, helping decrease greenhouse gases and overall waste.
For more information on the textile recycling process visit https://upparel.com.au/
