“We went from working out of storage units to presenting a professional business to the world,” says Incubator resident Anne Thompson.

Textile waste is fast becoming one of the planet’s most pressing environmental challenges, but one innovative Macquarie University Incubator resident is offering a solution with ethically and sustainably produced schoolwear.

“Hundreds of tonnes of non-wearable school uniforms go to landfill each year,” explains Sustainable Schoolwear founder Anne Thompson.

“If all 3.9 million Australian students throw away one polo shirt in each of their 13 school years, it will generate over 8619 tonnes of waste.

“But, if made from good recycled polyester, school shirts can be upcycled into new products such as furniture, acoustic tiles or new polyester fibre.”

Sustainable Schoolwear offers a growing range of school uniform basics, including a quick-dry polo shirt made from 100 per cent recycled plastic bottles – keeping plastics out of our oceans and landfill, and reducing fossil fuels used in polyester production.

When Anne first made her commitment to create school uniforms containing a 50/50 blend of organic cotton and recycled polyester, she encountered a steep learning curve. Not only had she never made anything in her life, she had to rapidly grow her knowledge of textiles, sustainability, manufacturing and business.

She painstakingly grew the business from three to 25 schools in around 18 months, before a crucial pivot point in January 2019 – joining the Macquarie University Incubator.

“We went from working out of storage units to presenting a professional business to the world,” Anne recalls. “The Incubator’s pitching and mentoring programs were crucial in refining our messages and focusing our efforts, which helped us win the 2019 AMP Tomorrow Fund Grant to launch our pilot program to upcycle old uniforms into new items.”

“From this pilot will come Worn Up, our charity initiative centred on harnessing the resources in non-wearable textiles to create not just new clothing, but other objects such as moulded plastic school desks. The possibilities are endless.”

Anne’s is one of the few pilot projects chosen to take part in the NSW Government’s Circular Economy Innovation Network initiative and Anne is excited by its potential to drive a genuine shift in consumption and manufacturing.

“We’re really going to be able to play around with the possibilities now, and work with partners that can really push the boundaries of sustainable manufacturing.

“Our vision is to achieve all this at a national level. We want to create something that’s fully circular, where kids can see that everything we use potentially has multiple purposes, and so they can feel optimistic about their future.” 

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Applications are currently open for the Macquarie University Incubator’s resident program.