Having now completed my first full year as CEO of ANZRP I am proud to look back on a very successful 12 months. As we step into the new financial year I am pleased to report we have met our regulatory volume collection and reasonable access targets and are currently awaiting finalised material recovery rates from our recyclers, which also look to be on track. I am confident that we will achieve 100% compliance, indicative of our unwavering commitment to the responsible and ethical management of e-waste and to the successful operation of the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme.
Financial year 2018/19 was an incredibly busy year and one in which ANZRP grew in a multitude of ways. Some key achievements to highlight include:
- Completion of a full tender process for our recycling partners with updated contracts and pricing. This has enabled us to ensure all recyclers are on the same conditions and also to update contracts to include some important new clauses to assist with compliance and governance.
- Submitted a comprehensive response to the Federal Department of Environment and Energy’s review of the Product Stewardship Act and the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme. In this we continued to advocate for the expansion of NTCRS scope materials which would allow us to accept more types of e-waste.
- Welcomed new Members from the retail space – Officeworks, Kmart and Target. We have also taken on the contract for Officeworks to run their ‘Bring It Back’ in-store collection program that has doubled our collection network and substantially increased our collection volume.
- Held numerous collection events in areas without a permanent collection site, working in partnership with community organisations and small businesses.
- Developed a 3-year strategy for ANZRP looking to strengthen the TechCollect program and investigate opportunities to expand our services into other aligned areas, improving Members’ services and reducing costs.
- Launched a pilot TechCollect program in New Zealand supported by seven ANZRP members with collections through 16 OfficeMax stores. We held several meetings with the New Zealand government and Environment Minister Eugenie Sage and recently submitted an application to the Waste Minimisation Fund to expand our pilot and develop a regulated e-waste product stewardship scheme.
- Became a certified B Corporation – a B Corp is a new kind of business that meets higher standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability, balancing profit and purpose. The certification process allowed us to not only receive recognition for the things we’re doing well, but take a look at the areas with room for improvement and aim to grow.
- Began work with the Singapore government to look at developing a full e-waste product stewardship program.
This is just a short list of key activities we have undertaken. We continue to follow our primary goal of providing a comprehensive and well-managed national e-waste recycling program for the Australian public, and look forward to progressing this in the years ahead.
Rounding out the financial year we will soon be providing you with volume reports, and for the first time, insights into your contribution to the environmental benefits achieved through collecting and recycling e-waste.
I would like to personally thank all of our collection partners who continue to work cooperatively and collaboratively with us to provide an exceptional service in your communities. We promise to continue to provide you with the high quality service you have come to expect from ANZRP-TechCollect.
Warren Overton, CEO ANZRP
