Built to Last: Our 99% Plastic Free Supply Chain

AS Colour was founded in 2005 with a vision to raise the standard of wholesale blank apparel. We've always believed that longer-lasting products are better for the environment. By creating exceptional quality garments that are built to last, we aim to reduce waste and encourage conscious consumption.

But longevity, for us, doesn't start with the t-shirt in your wardrobe. It starts much earlier, in the supply chain behind it. So we built one around a question most of the industry wasn't asking 20 years ago: how much of this plastic do we actually need? It turns out the answer is almost none of it.

Most of the plastic in the apparel industry isn't in the clothing. It's in the garment bags they're wrapped in, the tape on the cartons, the wraps on the pallet, the tags attached to the t-shirt. Plastic-free isn't one decision. It's hundreds. Our focus has been to keep plastic out where we could, and remove it where we couldn't.

Two decades on, the result is a 99% plastic-free supply chain that we’re incredibly proud of. That last 1% is the hardest part, because every easy substitution has already been made. What's left are the places where plastic still does a job nothing else can do quite as well yet, and those are the problems we're working on now.

Longevity has always meant more to us than how long a t-shirt lasts in your wardrobe. It means building a business the same way with decisions that hold up over time.

Twenty years in, we're still doing it differently.

Behind the Scenes of 99% Plastic-Free

1. No Plastic Bags
   No individual garment bags. Despite it being the common practice in our industry, we do not single-bag any of our products. The duster bags that protect needed products are biodegradable & compostable.
2. No Plastic Cellotape:
   By using paper tape instead of standard cellotape on our cartons, we’ve reduced unnecessary waste and made it easier to recycle cardboard.
   
3. No Plastic Hooks
   Our socks, underwear and belts have moved to a cardboard hook where the garment hangs on a clothing rack in stores. We have changed to thread or recycled plastic swift tags where used.
4. No Plastic Pallet Wrap
   Since 2020, the cartons that are delivered into our warehouses arrive free from plastic shrink wrap.
5. No Plastic Retail Bags
   We have never used single-use plastic bags as store bags, and we will continue to do this. All of our paper retail bags in NZ, AU, UK & EU are Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
6. No Plastic Swingtags
   The majority of our products come untagged but for retail, we opt for card swingtags attached with a pin. Over the years, we’ve workshopped these to be as recyclable as possible, removing unnecessary features.
7. Recycled Courier Bags
   Most of our orders ship in cartons. When courier bags are necessary, we use recycled plastic. It doesn’t eliminate plastic from our supply chain, but it does mean we aren’t creating new plastic, reducing our use of non-renewable resources.