NZME And RUBY Announce Sustainable Fashion-forward Partnership

NZME is delighted to launch a new sustainable fashion-forward partnership with design powerhouse RUBY through Liam Patterns. NZME and RUBY are creating a circular solution, turning wastepaper from the end of newspaper print rolls from NZME’s Ellerslie printing press plant into printed patterns under RUBY’s Liam Patterns brand.

The new partnership highlights the sustainability journey both companies are on, as they look to incorporate new ways to support environmental awareness and sustainability.

Matt Wilson, Chief Operations Officer for NZME, says the newsprint reels have unusable paper offcuts usually sent to be recycled, but this new partnership means the paper is given a second life.

“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. Our journalists are writing about environmental issues across our news platforms, and our radio hosts are talking about sustainability and circular economies regularly on our radio shows. As a business, NZME is also on an ever-evolving journey when it comes to our own sustainable practices.”

NZME will put aside an allocated quantity of its reel ends for RUBY, which will then be taken to the Liam Patterns printing facility at Ellar Graphics for production. An average of 50-60 metres of newsprint is able to be utilised from each reel end roll for Liam Patterns, meaning approximately 18-20 patterns will be created per roll.

RUBY General Manager Emily Miller-Sharma explains that the newsprint reel ends from NZME’s printing facilities stood out as the perfect opportunity to give wastepaper another life.

“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.

“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. For example, at RUBY we use it when cutting samples, to print markers that our cutters lay on top of layers of fabric to cut bulk production. How much more waste can we divert? And what could be the overall drop in demand for new production?” she says.

Louise Nash, CEO and founder of Circularity and co-founder of XLabs, Aotearoa’s circular economy lab, says the circular economy has moved well beyond a niche topic, to become an undeniable necessity for the world where we design out waste and pollution, keep materials in use and regenerate our living systems.

“We are thrilled to see RUBY, one of our XLabs circular economy lab 2020 alumni, continuing to innovate again and again by using circular principles to unlock new value and working across the economy to reduce our collective impact on the natural world. 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.”

To celebrate the partnership Viva readers will receive a free Liam Patterns’ pattern in today’s magazine. Miller-Sharma will also be a guest on the Viva Talks podcast today to talk about the exciting new partnership, and how the future is circular as the focus to sustainable consumption becomes paramount.

For more information visit Liam Patterns. For imagery/video click here.

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