What else could an old T shirt become? At UPPAREL in Cranbourne West, south east of Melbourne, one answer is a sign. Its UPtex board, made entirely from recycled textile waste, won Best in Class in the Fashion and Textiles category of the 2026 Australian Good Design Awards, announced by the company on 14 October. UPtex is a direct swap for plastic corflute signboards, can be printed up to 16 times, and at the end of its life comes back to UPPAREL to be broken down into fibre and made into new signage, with every step in Australia. Each A1 sign prevents around 150 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions over its lifetime, the company says, and Melbourne BMW was among the first to put it on show. In September the Australian Financial Review named UPPAREL a finalist in its Sustainability Leaders 2026 Awards, a year after it won the same category, with textiles kept out of landfill growing from 2.7 million kilograms to 17.1 million.
UPPAREL was founded by Michael and Tina Elias, who began with a sock subscription business, MANRAGS, and asked where garments go when they are finished. It became a Certified B Corporation in 2021. About 40 per cent of what arrives is new or ready to wear and is passed by hand to charity partners such as Save The Children, Youth Projects and Djirra; the rest is repurposed by local makers or turned into UPtex. Anyone in Australia can send clean clothes, linen, shoes and fabric offcuts: book online from $35 for 10 kilograms, pack them in your own cardboard box, and drop it at Australia Post or have it collected. Your old jeans might just become the sign above a showroom door.
Sources and links
An Earth to Sea News story, from UPPAREL (9 September and 14 October 2026). Photographs: as credited in captions.
