Paul Ryzowy established Creswick Woollen Mills in 1947 in partnership with European immigrants fleeing WW2. These immigrants brought with them from Poland a special skill of recycling woollen jumpers.
Necessity is the Mother of all invention. These immigrants came from areas of Europe where virgin fibre and dye stuffs were in short supply. The solution was the collection, sorting and tearing of old jumpers to create yarn from recycled materials.
Soon Country Victoria, would be home to one of the original Australian recyclers, Creswick Woollen Mills. Due to the longevity and perseverance of the Creswick Woollen Mills family, end of life Woollen knitwear has been converted into quality homewares products for over 75 years.
Through the decades, Creswick have followed the following steps:
- Create strong relationships with charities who accumulate end of life textiles that they can’t sell in their op shops
- Employ loyal staff to sort these jumpers by fibre and colour
- Process these garments: taking of labels, zips, and buttons
- Run the cut pieces through rag tearing machines that create recycled wool fibre
- Blend the fibre with other fibres to create high quality recycled yarns
- Weave the yarns and process the fabrics into a variety of uses
The processing of end-of-life textiles has been part of the Creswick’s family heritage. The ability to work with Australian Charities over many decades enables our company to minimize waste and ensure a commercial use was given to textile products “unsuitable” for op shops and private resale.
In the past two decades Creswick has partnered with ethical companies in India to ensure the viability of the recycling process.
Facilitating Australian end of life textiles shipments direct to GRS (Global Recycling Standard) accredited mills in India, Creswick Woollen Mills have ensured that a fit for purpose, traceable supply chain has been created to convert end of life textiles into products suitable for the Australian Market.
A range of Good, Better, Best products have been created:
- Good – Blankets suitable for charities
- Better – Tartan Throw Rugs
- Best – Alpaca Throw rugs made from recycled Alpaca sweaters
Currently in development are a range of products made from end-of-life:
- Denim Jeans
- Cotton Sweaters
- Wool Suiting
- Wool Sweaters
Yarns made from these end-of-life products will be made into:
- Hand Knitting Yarn
- Scarves, Beanies & Caps
- Slippers
- Knitwear
- Blankets