Tina and Michael Elias never set out to revolutionise recycling. When they started their first business, they had their sights set on one clear goal: to provide socks, every month, to a loyal membership base. It was the country’s first sock subscription service, and for the husband-and-wife team, it was a surprise hit business. But soon after launching in 2016, Tina began to see the impact of selling socks at such frequency.

“Where did they go? We are manufacturing these things but what do customers do with them?” she asks now, nearly 10 years later. She devised a “sock takeback program”, encouraging customers to return their worn and damaged pairs to be recycled in 2019.