Project Boomerang sets Salvos Stores on course for a Circular Economy

• The Queensland Government is supporting Salvos Stores to install a textile recycling plant in Carole Park, as the foundation for a textiles circular economy hub in south-east Queensland.

• The textile recycling plant will be installed at Carole Park as part of Project Boomerang.

• It will sort donated textiles into material types, removes buttons and zippers, and customise an end product range to meet the needs of recyclers’ specific material streams.

Queensland’s Salvos Stores are on the road to better clothes recycling and resource recovery thanks to a grant from the Queensland Government.

Salvos Stores will use the grant to purchase and install a textile recycling plant at Carole Park as the foundation for a textiles circular economy hub in south-east Queensland.

The recycling plant sorts post-consumer textiles into material type, removes buttons and zippers, and customises an end product range for recyclers’ specific material streams.

The plant will be Australia’s first automated textiles sorting and decontamination solution, replicating a plant which is currently in operation in Amsterdam.

Salvos Stores will provide the Carole Park site and fund its operating costs. Rather than viewing clothing as disposable, reuse and recycling encourages people to consider the lifecycle of their garments and make more mindful choices about consumption, says Matt Davis- National Director of Salvos Stores.

Australia is among the world's largest consumers of textiles, with people purchasing an estimated 27 kilograms of clothing and textiles annually, and much of the nation’s discarded clothing ends up in landfill, causing environmental issues such as pollution and resource loss.

The Queensland Government will continue its efforts to support textile recovery, reuse and recycling, raise awareness about the environmental impacts of clothing waste, and promote circular economy practices.

The project is supported by QUT’s feasibility research, and SE Queensland Local Governments and Charitable Recycling Australia who are looking for solutions to divert textiles from landfill.

Minister for the Environment and the Great Barrier Reef and Minister for Science and Innovation Leanne Linard mentioned “The Salvos are on an environmental winner with Project Boomerang and their plans to operate a textile recycling plant in Carole Park, which will help divert textiles from landfill,” she said.

“Reusing and recycling clothes is environmentally sustainable, and it reduce the demand for new garments which lessens the strain on natural resources and minimises pollution generated by manufacturing and transportation. Textiles in landfill can take decades to decompose, potentially releasing harmful greenhouse gases like methane, other chemicals or microplastics in the process".

Companies such as Kmart Group, Samsara Eco and Full Circle Fibres are also supportive as they look to develop local supply chains and markets for recycled textiles.

Kmart Group Managing Director Ian Bailey said “An initiative like this is a critical step-change for the retail industry in Australia. Kmart Group is committed to ensuring responsible end-of-life systems are in place for all products we sell, and we see an important role for industry to play in supporting self-sustaining reuse and recycling infrastructure in Australia.” He said.

“Building advanced automated sortation facilities locally will enable the highest value to be realised for post-consumer items, turning waste into a valuable commodity for both reuse and recycling. We see tremendous opportunity to support the development of this and other facilities through connecting the offtake from the facility with our upstream supply chains, as we work to materially reduce the amount of textiles that end up in landfill in Australia.”

Meaningful change can only occur through scalable collaborations and partnerships, and Kmart Group is proud to have supported the feasibility work for this program. Kmart has been a proud partner of The Salvos for over 36 years, and this project is a natural extension of that.”

From Salvos Stores National Director Matt Davis:
"By embracing clothing reuse and recycling, we reduce environmental harm and foster a culture of sustainability and conscious consumption that has social and environmental benefits for present and future generations. 

Donating surplus clothing raises vital funds for charity, provides affordable clothing for those in need, and will now contribute to a circular economy as unwearable clothing can be recycled and remanufactured in a variety of resource streams.”