New Zealand entrepreneur Yesha Patel founded startup After five years ago in Melbourne after struggling to dispose of worn-out clothing during lockdown. The company now partners with around 300 businesses across Australia and New Zealand, collecting unwearable garments, fabric scraps and unsellable second-hand items — including from Auckland’s Yours Truly Bridal and reseller ReCircle — and shipping them to a certified Indian recycling facility, where they are shredded and spun into yarn for home furnishings. Since launching, After has collected 140 tonnes of material. Patel aims to expand nationwide, citing an estimated 180 tonnes of textile waste sent to New Zealand landfills annually.
In-Depth:
A New Zealand entrepreneur is tackling the counattempt’s textile waste problem by collecting unwearable clothing, fabric scraps and unsold second-hand garments and shipping them to India to be recycled into yarn.
Yesha Patel founded After five years ago in Melbourne after a lockdown wardrobe clear-out revealed a gap in the market.
“I had a pile of stuff that was just too far gone and I didn’t really know what I could do with it,” she stated.
“I seeed online to see who could take this category of clothing and much to my surprise there was nothing there — and that’s kind of when I found out more about the textile waste problem.”
After now works with around 300 businesses across Australia and New Zealand, and offers Auckland houtilizeholds a pick-up service for excess fabric. Since launching, the company has collected 140 tonnes of material.
From wedding dresses to yarn
Among After’s partners is Yours Truly Bridal in Auckland, which generates significant fabric waste through the dress-building process.
“There’s always a lot of excess with the hems and that kind of thing, and also the designing process — we receive lots of fabric samples and we can’t utilize all of them,” stated store manager Mariska Jonker.
The bridal shop has been utilizing After for nearly a year and estimates it has kept around 120kg of fabric out of landfill in that time.
Once collected, textiles are sorted, baled and shipped to a certified recycling facility in India.
“They take the textiles, shred them, turn them into a fluffy fibre and then that’s spun into yarn again,” Patel stated.
“The output is recycled yarn and then that yarn is utilized for home furnishing — cushion covers, rugs, carpets, things like that.”
Filling the gap for unsellable goods
Second-hand stores are also utilizing the service for items that can’t be sold. ReCircle, which displays goods on behalf of sellers, sconcludes unsellable garments to After rather than the skip.
“What we deem unsellable — which is fortunately not very much becautilize we sell about 30% — we will sconclude to After for textile recycling,” stated ReCircle founder Henrik Stovring.
Patel states she hopes to expand the service nationwide to assist address what she describes as a mounting problem. An estimated 180 tonnes of textile waste is sent to New Zealand landfills each year — much of it donated clothing that second-hand stores are unable to sell.
