We're a small family business in the Bay of Plenty, and this is our backyard too - our coastline, our community, our waterways. So, when it comes to how we operate, we don't cut corners. At Diffuse, sustainability and social responsibility aren't a side project or a corporate tick box, they're built into every stage of our process, from the garments we choose to work with, through to how we look after our own team.
It's an ongoing journey, and over the past five years we've made real progress in reducing our impact on the planet, but it's a project that will never be finished. because there will always be ways we can improve.
Four things that make us different to our competition
Supplier Choices
It starts before a garment ever reaches our workshop. We encourage our customers toward suppliers genuinely committed to ethical manufacturing, reduced packaging waste, and responsible employment practices. We're selective about who we partner with choosing brands like: EashionBiz, AS Colour, Cloke and Stoney Creek, each committed to responsible garment manufacturing in their own way.
Garment Recycling
We're proud partners of ImpacTex, New Zealand's leading textile recycler, ensuring unwanted garments and uniforms are responsibly diverted from landfill rather than adding to the roughly 180,000 tonnes of textile waste New Zealand sends to landfill every year. Using garment waste to be repurposed and made into packaging, acoustic paneling, corporate giftware, indoor/outdoor signage, merchandising displays and much more.
Waste Recycling
Over the last five years we've completely overhauled our production processes. Instead of throwing away all packaging we reuse packaging from our suppliers to send our finished garments out in.
For packaging that cannot be reused we recycle carbon and soft plastic.
Sustainable Decorating
Our ink range is built around cleaner, safer standards: Epic Rio Printing Ink that cure at lower temperatures, are low odour and phthalate free. We also print with Magna water based inks which are OEKO-TEX certified. Our digital DTF inks are also OEKO-TEX certified.
We use Easiway environmentally approved, low odour cleaning products for reclaiming our screens and have drain filters on our drain that filter our waste water to 50 microns.
How it works?
Garment Recycling
For individuals and smaller businesses: simply drop unwanted clothing into our onsite collection bin. We collate this with other collections and arrange delivery to ImpacTex.
For larger businesses: we'll set up your own onsite collection bin (120L or 240L, with signage), for a one-off setup cost. When it's full, let us know and we'll organise collection and delivery to ImpacTex. Charges apply but in return, you'll receive a quarterly report showing how much has been recycled and the carbon offset achieved.
What's accepted: clothing (jeans, shirts, coats), hi-vis wear, wireless bras (or bras with wire removed), bed linen (not duvet inners or pillows), towels and tea towels, fabric mattress protectors (not waterproof), and rain jackets/pants (excluding PVC garments).
What happens next: textiles are sorted and assessed, decommissioned (hardware like zips and buttons removed), then industrially torn down into a fine fibre. That fibre goes on to become home insulation, couch cushioning, pet beds, wall partitions, acoustic panelling and ImpacTex's own Retex panels, 100% New Zealand textile waste and 100% recyclable.
Great work starts with a great team.
Working At Diffuse
At Diffuse, looking after our team isn't a HR policy on a wall it's just how we operate. We're a small, family-owned business where the owners are on the floor every day alongside the team. There's no corner office, no close doors, and no gap between what we say and how we actually behave.
A flat. open team - everyone has a voice. We share now the business is tracking, make decisions together where we can, and believe the people doing the work have the best ideas about how to do it better.
Flexibility that fits real life-school pickups, family commitments, or just a day when someone needs a bit of give. We work with our team to make it work, because that kind of trust goes both ways.
Learning and growing- garment decoration is a genuine craft, and we invest in our team getting better at it, from decoration techniques through to the environmental side of what we do.
A safe, healthy workspace - our choices around low-phthalate inks, eco-friendly cleanup, and filtered wastewater aren't just about the environment. They're about the space our team works in every single day.
Shared kai and celebrating wins - we're a team, not just a workforce. We share lunches, celebrate milestones, and take time to acknowledge good work.
The perks of working in apparel-quality branded workwear and access to clothing at heavily discounted rates. If you help other people look great for a living, you should look great too.
Want to work with a decorator who takes this seriously?
Get in touch we'd love to show you what five years of real change looks like.