BlockTexx teams up with social enterprise HELP to supply its new clothing recycling plant
By Nick Nichols, Business News Australia
26 May 2023
Logan, QLD-based clean technology startup BlockTexx has teamed up with a Brisbane social enterprise group to convert tonnes of its ‘decommissioned’ clothing into resources for the construction, manufacturing and agricultural sectors.
BlockTexx has formalised its partnership with HELP Enterprises after completing a successful trial, paving the way for the partnership to also create new employment opportunities for people living with disabilities.
BlockTexx, co-founded in 2018 by former fashion company executive Adrian Jones and Kusaga Athletic founder Graham Ross, last year commissioned its first fully operational processing facility at Loganholme on Brisbane’s southern outskirts.
Construction of the facility, which is expected to produce 50,000 tonnes of recycled textiles over the next four years, came on the heels of a $5.5 million Series A capital raising in 2021 from private investors and multi-government funding.
Deploying industry-leading technology, BlockTexx collaborated with Queensland University of Technology (QUT) researchers to develop a commercially viable system to extract and reuse fibres from discarded clothing, sheets and towels.
The trademarked S.O.F.T. (separation of fibre technology) process can repurpose cellulose from recycled polyester-cotton textiles, which are traditionally problematic to separate, and use the by-product to create new resources.
