Media powerhouse NZME recently announced a new partnership with fashion brand RUBY to create a sustainable circular solution that turns wastepaper into printed patterns.
Wastepaper from the end of newspaper print rolls from NZME’s printing press plant in Auckland are usually sent to be recycled, but will instead go to RUBY through Liam Patterns Brand to create printed patterns.
“This collaboration is unlike anything we have done before at NZME and we are thrilled to be working with RUBY to create a sustainable solution, using our wastepaper,” says Matt Wilson, Chief Operations Officer at NZME.
Wilson says that NZME will put aside an allocated quantity of its reel ends which will be taken to the Liam Patterns printing facility.
He adds that an average 50 to 60 metres of newsprint is able to be utilised to create 18 to 20 patterns.
“This partnership shows how if we collaborate across industries, we can keep raw materials at the highest possible value for longer. We are utilising NZME’s leftover paper, reducing waste and raw material production,” says RUBY General Manager Emily Miller-Sharma.
“The potential of this collaboration is huge. Most of the clothing industry that makes things in New Zealand (whether it is samples or bulk production) use newsprint.”
Miller-Sharma says RUBY uses newsprint to cut samples and print markers that their cutters can lay on top of other layers of product to cut “bulk production”.
With this innovative way of using wastepaper, Miller-Sharma asks “how much more waste can we diver? Abd what could be the overall drop in demand for new production?”.
Louise Nash, CEO and founder of Circularity and co-founder of XLabs says the concept of circular economy is growing from just being a niche topic to becoming necessary where people design out of waste and pollution and keeping materials in use and regenerate our living systems.
“By upcycling wastepaper from NZME as patterns for Liam’s customers – new value is created that allows the waste material to be used multiple times,” says Nash.
