Thanks to Plastics NZ’s ‘CircularConnect’ programme, The Environment Innovation Centre (EIC) got to work with two great teams at Flo & Frankie and Advanced Textiles Association New Zealand.

Some of the composite plastic waste streams from advanced textiles companies are difficult (or even impossible) to recycle – so the EIC provided, Duncan’s Canvas, with a template to create plastics collection bag for Flo & Frankie to collect their soft plastics in.

At Flo & Frankie, soft plastics are sorted as they go (thanks to Environmental Innovation Centre workshops and our signage) and then taken to
PACT Recycling (using reverse logistics as the F&F van goes past the door once a week anyway). EIC spoke to Astron to ensure that the new reusable bag comes back to F&F every time.

The F&F team are testing the design for, and we will continue to improve it and determine how many times it can be reused but they are super tough so hopefully for many years. This could be a potential market for other ATA NZ members.

So reusing waste from textiles to create bags to carry recyclable plastics for another company was a very happy solution!