Recycling and Reuse Drop-Off Wall

What is the Reuse and Recycling Drop-Off Wall?

The Recycling and Reuse Drop-Off wall is a locker-style unit that allows people and businesses of the community to drop off hard-to-recycle materials that cannot be placed in kerbside collection bins. They focus on materials that have established Product Stewardship schemes and/or processing, that Planet Ark is able to verify have circular-focused solutions.

How does this help?

It can be tough trying to find and venture to many locations to drop off smaller, harder-to-recycle items. Having one location that allows for multiple material streams simplifies a potentially confusing and time sapping situation.

The community wants to do their part and know that their efforts contribute to a more sustainable world. The Drop-Off walls give communities confidence that their efforts are contributing positively towards a circular economy. Simplifying a complex situation as much as possible.

How is this helpful for Product Stewardship schemes?

Having each individual scheme manage and pay for their own collection and logistics can be costly. Consolidating and collaborating in collections and logistics allows for schemes to get their feedstock at a reduced cost meaning they can focus on what they do best; reusing materials to get them back into circulation.

Having cleaner streams of materials allows for better solutions and results once collected. This means we can do more with the materials we’re already using. It helps the Product Stewardship schemes by giving them consistent and clean feedstock for their programs that they can trust with confidence.

How does this help the planet?

Sending materials to landfill means when new products are manufactured, we must find and process more of the earth’s finite resources. Having successful Product Stewardship and Recycling Schemes like the ones included in the Drop-Off walls, means the valuable materials we’ve already taken from the earth can be reused, and that slows our depletion of these finite resources, while still having the ability to create new products that are required.

How does this connect to other Planet Ark programs?

The Recycling & Reuse Drop-Off Wall combines our existing Product Stewardship Programs; Cartridges 4 Planet Ark, Batteries 4 Planet Ark, and PodCycle, along with schemes Planet Ark has helped to develop: Soft Plastic Stewardship Australia, and ReCork, into one location that the community can contribute to. This is a practical example of teachings from the Australian Circular Economy Hub (ACE Hub) that can be taught about during National Recycling Week and is amplified to the communities and interested individuals through RecyclingNearYou.com.

What problem is this trying to solve?

There are multiple problems that Planet Ark believes the Reuse and Recycling Drop-Off Walls solve.

Initially it was created as a solution to the complexity of recycling. There are many items that people know can be recycled or reused, but finding locations to drop them off can often be confusing, hard to locate, and even untrustworthy. This program aims to

simplify where to drop off items, verified by Planet Ark to help build trust between the community and organisations that house the Walls.

Another problem the Walls aim to approach is the feedstock issue of Product Stewardship Schemes. For Product Stewardship schemes one of the biggest hurdles is the retrieval of materials, including the cost of collection. The Wall aims to reduce the cost of collecting materials by consolidating pick-ups into centralised locations, allowing for more materials to be dropped off and collected together at a reduced cost to all.

Existing collection methods; Yellow recycling bins, large item drop-offs, etc., have a great role in collecting a significant proportion of widely used and easily recyclable items. This program focuses on the materials that benefit from higher quality separation from other materials, as existing separation systems at Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) can struggle to differentiate and separate these materials. Cleaner material streams allow for higher quality products to be produced.

With the rise and uncertainty stemmed by Greenwashing, this program aims to provide communities with confidence that the materials they drop-off can be trusted to end up at locations that will make the most of them. Utilising Planet Arks brand as Australia’s most trusted environmental NFP, we aim to give users confidence that the materials they drop-off will be reused through the circular economy.

How can you get involved? Find out more

Search for a wall within your council through RecyclingNearYou.com to drop off your items. Reach out to your local council/school/shopping centre and let them know how much having a wall in your area would help. Reach out to us at PSHub with your recommendations of where you would like to see another Drop-Off Wall.