Melbourne Design Week | From Waste to Worth: Turning Textile Waste into Opportunity

What if discarded textiles could fuel a new wave of design innovation?

From Waste to Worth invites you to explore the untapped potential of textile waste through a curated showcase of fashion, furniture, art, and object design, crafted from reclaimed materials sourced through After’s recovery and sorting operations. After is an Australian textile recovery service dedicated to ethically and sustainably diverting end-of-life textiles from landfill, giving them a second life through recycling and upcycling.

Bringing together leading and emerging Australian designers, this exhibition reimagines textile waste as a resource for creativity and circular design. Each piece challenges the way we think about materials, proving that sustainability and innovation go hand in hand. Some works will also be available for sale, offering a rare opportunity to own a piece of this circular future.

This exhibition is a call to action - urging the design community to embrace reclaimed textiles and rethink how materials are sourced, designed, and valued. By normalising reuse in design, we aim to drive systemic change.

Proudly supported by FB IDEAs and Gamuda Land Australia, From Waste to Worth challenges us all to rethink, reuse, and redesign the way we create.

Join us to celebrate the intersection of sustainability and creativity—and discover how Australia’s vast textile waste can become the foundation of a circular design future.

Hosts

After (after.net.au)
After offers a convenient and transparent textile waste collection service for Aussie households and businesses, ensuring the items are ethically and sustainably upcycled or recycled into new creations, including raw materials such as yarn which recirculates back into the textile industry. After focuses on unwearable and end-of-life textile waste that are worn, torn, unsellable or is not usable. To reward consumers, After's Recycle Rewards program provides customers with discounts to Australian and New Zealand sustainable brands for every textile waste collection. Our vision is to empower all Australian consumers and businesses to ethically dispose of their textiles and create a circular economy. It's time to join the after party!

FB Ideas x Gamuda Land Australia
The Circular Design Collective is a collaboration between Fishermans Bend Ideas and Gamuda Land Australia. It brings a range of innovators and creative practitioners working on circular economy initiatives together to imagine, incubate, experiment, collaborate and showcase new design approaches. It aims to show the future vision for Fishermans Bend in action - by creating a thriving collaborative community that demonstrates innovative approaches to environmental sustainability, liveability, connectivity, diversity and innovation. https://www.fbideas.org/fb-circular-design-collective