IVE RECYCLES FIVE TONNES OF WORKWEAR

IVE Group, Australia’s largest diversified marketing company, has successfully diverted five tonnes of uniform and corporate apparel from Australian landfill over the past two years.  

In late 2024, IVE became the first uniform supplier to become a member of Seamless, Australia’s national clothing stewardship scheme. Seamless is on a mission to enable the Australian clothing industry to do what no single organisation can do alone: transform how clothing is chosen, enjoyed and recycled in Australia, In order to create a circular clothing economy in Australia in five years' time, by 2030.

IVE supplies uniforms to clients across the retail, hospitality, security, logistics and lifestyle sectors. Since 2023 the Group has recycled or repurposed more than five tonnes of uniforms – items no longer needed due to staff turnover, brand refreshes, or general wear and tear.

“Of course we’re proud to have achieved this – but with the sheer scale of clothing waste in Australia, it’s just the start,” says Olivia Tyler, chief people and sustainability officer at IVE. “We’ve got a long way to go. Our focus is on keeping materials in their highest-value use for as long as possible. That means shifting how we think – collaborating with clients and industry, and staying ahead of advancements in recycling and reuse to keep climbing the value chain.”

At the outset of every uniform programme, IVE works closely with clients to understand their sustainability goals. This informs decisions across the entire apparel lifecycle – from fibre choice and design, to use, reuse, and recovery.

Programmes are tailored to client needs, ranging from entry-level diversion – where uniforms are collected and responsibly recycled via IVE’s textile recovery network to full closed-loop solutions – where garments are designed from the start for disassembly and reuse, incorporating recycled materials like rPET, organic cotton, and recycled trims.

“IVE is committed to responsible leadership and is the first uniform supplier to join as a Seamless member,” Seamless CEO Ainsley Simpson said. “By embedding circular thinking into its apparel programmes and working closely with clients and the industry to reduce the amount of clothing going to landfill, IVE is helping to transition the Australian clothing sector towards a more sustainable, scalable future."

In Australia, around 1.4 billion new clothing items are brought to market each year – with an estimated six tonnes of clothing sent to landfill every 10 minutes.*

Seamless is Australia’s national product stewardship scheme for clothes, and the world’s first circular product stewardship scheme. It recognises that clothing brands and retailers are responsible for the life of their garments from design, through to reuse, recycling and end of life. The clothing brands and retailers who join Seamless are responsible leaders, and the contribution they make for every new garment placed on the market funds investment activities which drive circularity outcomes.

*Source: Report for Monash Sustainable Development Institute (MSDI), Transitioning to a Circular Economy in Australia