In August 2022, we started printing Liam Patterns on waste paper from NZME’s print production of The New Zealand Herald.

We use on average 50-60 metres from each newsprint reel end that would otherwise be sent to recycling. With each reel end we can create approximately 18-20 patterns.

NZME sources its FSC certified* newsprint from Tasmania, Australia.
* FSC® A000522

A note: Liam Patterns that were printed before August 2022 are printed on paper made from waste materials that occur as a by-product of pine forest production in New Zealand.

During a training workshop in 2020 for people wanting to join the industry, or at early stages of their careers, Emily started cutting our excess fabric into strips and knitting them together with 2cm knitting needles. After trailing around strips of fabric to meetings, bed and dinner parties, something had to give. She put it out to the world that she was looking for a YOLO knitter, and was introduced to Geo Gregory of Geo Knits Slow (GKS).

Geo Knits Slow is a project that she has been working on for years, knitting beautiful pieces out of found materials such as bed sheets and vintage clothing. Via many Zoom sessions, and a few trips up to Auckland, Geo and Em collaborated on a collection of knit pieces that use the fabric off-cuts from the Liam Everything collection. We sold those pieces, and the knitting patterns in store.

Along with this we released knitting needles made in Tauranga, New Zealand from repurposed wood by ReMaker for customers to use to make their own pieces out of scrap fabric.

We make some of our fabric off-cuts and excess binding  available to purchase. The off-cuts can be strip cut, knotted together to create yarn and then knitted together, however the binding is already pre-cut so this takes out the cutting work. The Liam x GKS patterns are a handy tool for creating garments and accessories OR you can sew the fabric off-cuts into something new of your creative choice.

In 2021 we introduced fabric off-cut boxes in our stores, which allows customers to take home RUBY fabric off-cuts, free of charge, to make their own small items. Alongside this we offer free downloadable Face Mask, Scrunchie, Bucket Hat, Lil Pouch and Book Bag patterns so customers can have all the components to make at home for free!

For larger excess materials or high wastage bulk cuts, we use this excess to make different sized scrunchies (and in the past face masks), creating a new accessory product for our Rubettes to purchase that complements our clothing in store. A full head to toe outfit! See our current scrunchies here

The ReCreators are a Social Enterprise based in Auckland, which promotes upcycling by learning to do it yourself (DIY) through community workshops. The collective supports collaborative learning, materials and support for sustainable creatives. The materials used are either discarded or off-cuts that would otherwise be destined for landfill.

“We feel they are beautiful and deserve a second chance on this planet.”

We have been collaborating with The ReCreators since 2020, donating off-cuts and bulk fabric ends for community workshops.
In 2022, we added different shaped pattern pieces into some of our bulk production cuts for the creation of poi and lei. This helped reduce our fabric wastage by 5-8%, and made the making process for the poi and lei easier as we could give The ReCreators cut circle pieces rather than these being hand cut one-by-one. With The ReCreators, we have cut and trialled 3 styles which were used in a Kapa Haka Festival and at Wesley Primary School.

We have a number of people reaching out to us who are interested in or are researching the realm of circular fashion design, production and waste. We encourage creativity, innovation and collaboration to further push the boundaries to find solutions. Got an idea? Get in touch!

We donate sampling fabric, leftover bulk fabric, fabric off-cuts and excess trims to community groups, schools and students who put these excess materials to use. Here are some recent examples:

- Creative Mending Circle
- Quilting Clubs
- Kindergartens
- High School students
- University students

Textile Products are a textile recycling company based in Auckland, New Zealand. Their recycling technology is used predominantly to recycle wool and natural products.

We send our natural fibres to Textile Products who have large machines that shred the fabrics down. They are then teased and turned into a variety of products including carpet underlay, insulation, weed mats, felt blankets, and furnishing fillers.

Upparel's non-chemical process uses excess or used textile and garments, and converts them into new profitable products, reducing excess materials from entering landfill. “Waste isn’t waste – it’s a resource!”

We have partnered with Upparel materials that cannot be made into other products or reused through our ‘reduction’ initiatives. This is converted into products such as cushions, furniture and jacket filler, insulation, acoustic panelling, rubber panelling and floorings in buildings.

Dealing with our excess materials in this way incurs a greater cost than if we were to send it straight to landfill. To give you an idea, it costs us $2.25/kg to do this, rather than roughly $0.80/kg if it went straight to landfill. As of July 2022, we converted 3,241kg of textile waste from landfill through Upparel, totalling $7,292.25. But we are committed to ensuring that we send the least amount of useful resources to landfill, so will keep working to reduce excess materials from our manufacturing, and looking for ways to repurpose and recycle excess materials.

Launched in 2021, @rubysaysrecycle is the home of samples and seconds that we make available for our Rubettes to purchase. For each style we put into store, anywhere between 2 to 5 samples may be made to ensure we get the fit and vibe just right, alongside this, there’s many samples made that for whatever reason, don't make it into store. It didn’t seem right for these pieces to not find a home so we list them on Instagram at the end of each season. We’re excited to see just how much you all (our beloved Rubettes!) love @rubysaysrecycle and look forward to building on this platform more in the coming years as we know re-selling a product can reduce the associated greenhouse gas emissions for that sale by anywhere from 43 to 82 percent.

Recognising nothing is ever perfect in this world, RUBY Upside Down celebrates the pieces that we’ve put a lot of love & care into, but somewhere in our production process a flaw or fault has occurred. We know these pieces are perfectly imperfect & can find a home with one of our Rubettes at a reduced price, with its quirk listed online. Prior to Upside Down’s launch in 2021, we would have often donated these pieces or kept them stored for a final season sale, so we love that Upside Down extends the value of these perfectly imperfect treasures.

We piloted a test of our RUBY Matchmaker service from June 2020 - August 2022 which was extremely successful. Matchmaker is an online portal for our customers to tell us what previous season pieces they are looking for or looking to sell. This allowed us on the backend to match up the seller and buyer to exchange the item, encouraging our customers to re-sell their pre-loved garments, to keep them out of landfill. Moving into 2023 we are working on a permanent platform for our Matchmaker service.

Since October 2017, RUBY has partnered with rental destination The Dress Room to make favourite RUBY and Liam styles available for short term rental, a great option for event dressing. We see our partnership with The Dress Room as another small step helping to extend one garment’s life and supporting our overall circularity journey, developing a culture where we use products, rather than own them. At the end of a rental garment’s rental life, we resell through RUBY Upside Down.

We hold ad hoc RUBY Repair events in store and promote them via social media. On these days, bring in your RUBY or liam clothes (from any season, no matter how old), and our in-house machinist will be ready to mend and/or hem your favourite pieces while you shop. We will also repair your RUBY pieces if they have a manufacturing fault.

Clothing & accessories that are not in a condition to be sold but are still beautiful to wear, for example test samples, or pieces that have slight faults, are donated to charities such as Womens Refuge, Dress for Success, The Gattung Foundation, and Rainbow Youth,

Our swing tags are made of recycled paper, helping to reduce our reliance on natural virgin resources. The string is made of waxed cotton, meaning the swing ticket can be composted after use (just remove the little safety pin). Alternatively, if your swing tag is in good condition, bring it to our IRL stores or RUBY HQ and we will put these back into circulation so we can use them again.

New swing tags cost around $0.65, and we have a staff initiative to collect swing tags from our team’s RUBY pieces. We hold a team lunch to the value of the swing tags we can reuse.

We take your RUBY and Liam pieces back to recycle or repurpose on your behalf - free of charge. Just drop into our IRL stores or send back to RUBY online. Depending on what the textile type is, we will send it to one of our partners such as Upparel to be processed into something else of value.

When garments are sent away for recycling, the hardware and trims on the garments are usually removed so that the garments can be broken down through machinery easily.

Items that we can take back for recycling:

- Clothing
- Hats and Scarves
- Shoes
- Belts
- Towels

Little Yellow Bird (LYB) takes back any 100% natural fibre clothing (from any brand) that has reached the end of its life. You can also send these directly to LYB. Just follow the instructions on their website.

The plastic hangers that we use for transporting and storing garments are made from a combination of virgin and recycled plastics, and we use them multiple times. When the hangers break, we collect them and send them back to the manufacturer in Hamilton, New Zealand. They are then broken down and turned into new plastic hangers.