After you click "Place Order" on Amazon.com.au, a lot happens behind the scenes before that package reaches your door. Your item/s are picked and packed at an Amazon fulfilment centre, then sent to a delivery station — typically the final stop before it's out for delivery. Inside the station, packages are sorted into large, durable bags organised by delivery route. Those bags are used to load cars and vans, a process that happens thousands of times a day across the network.
When a sortation bag is damaged inside one of Amazon's Australian delivery stations, there's now an alternative to replacing it. A pilot with Melbourne social enterprise SisterWorks is giving those bags a second life and creating employment for women who need it most.
A smarter path for used bags
Damaged bags are now collected and sent to SisterWorks' Springvale Manufacturing Hub in Melbourne's south-east, where migrant, refugee, and asylum-seeker women inspect, repair, and repurpose them.
Not every bag needs the same solution. Bags that can be fixed are stitched back together and returned to Amazon's network, extending their working life. Bags that can't be repaired are transformed into branded accessories including tote bags, laptop cases, wallets, pouches, and lunch bags.
The finished products are returned to Amazon, where they may be used at corporate events or carried by team members — turning used materials into something to wear with pride.
Real work, real pathways
At the heart of this pilot is the impact on people. Every bag processed at the Springvale Hub creates paid employment and hands-on skills training for women who face significant barriers to entering the Australian workforce.
SisterWorks supports migrant, refugee, and asylum-seeker women through structured programs that build confidence, capability, and economic independence.
For Sisters Farah and Raziya, the project has created both employment and opportunities to build new skills.
“Making these products has been really useful for us because it gives us employment. We feel very good about making new products through upcycling because we are helping the environment. This work gives us the opportunity to learn new skills and make money, which is important to us.” — Farah and Raziya, SisterWorks sisters
For Amazon Sustainability Manager Gus, the pilot has shown how environmental and social outcomes can come together through the same project.
“When I first started looking at what happens to our damaged sortation bags, I wanted to find a smarter path than the standard end-of-life route, and when I met the team at SisterWorks, it clicked. What moved me most wasn't just that we could repair our bags or repurpose them into tote bags and laptop cases, it was knowing that every bag we hand over puts paid work and real skills into the hands of migrant and refugee women, many of whom are taking their first steps into the Australian workforce. The first time I held a finished product that started life as one of our bags, with a little QR code telling its story, I felt genuinely proud of what we'd built together. This pilot showed me that doing the right thing for the planet and the right thing for people can go hand in hand. — Gus, Amazon Sustainability Manager
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