All of the delegates who packed out the QT Gold Coast conference facility said they were 100% satisfied with the NACRO Conference. Huge thanks to all the speakers and panellists including Craig Reucassel, Mike Ritchie, Pete Shmigel, Brian Walker, Peter Knock, Richard Wood, Bianca Gray, Bianca Williams, Laura Hill, Tony Khoury, Gemma Rygate and Faye […]
The Australian Circular Fashion Conference (ACFC) is Australasia’s leading business event on sustainability in fashion. Following the success of the inaugural event last year, ACFC 2019 is a call to action to the industry to implement fashion sustainability within 5-10 years, targeted at over 500 business leaders. For more on ACFC or to register, read […]
Garage Sale Trail is Australia’s biggest weekend of garage sales, and is happening on October 20 & 21 this year. Over 400,000 Australians will hit the streets that weekend in search of pre-loved bargains. The event which aims to encourage Australians to choose pre-loved whether through an op shop or garage sale aims to save […]
What’s inside your wardrobe? This fun, fashionable and thought-provoking event is free to everyone interested in how our fashion shopping choices can change the world! A fabulous line up of panelists talk about sustainability and ethical practices in the fashion industry and how op-shopping fits into our every day fashion choices. Its a precursor to […]
Buy Nothing New Month is the brainchild of Tamara DiMattina, who Fairfax call ‘PR to The Planet’. It started in Melbourne and is spreading to the Netherlands and USA. It’s a one month challenge to buy nothing new (with the exception of essentials like food, hygiene and medicines). It’s literally about taking one month off […]
The ‘Future of Recycling’ is the theme for NACRO’s Annual Conference, to be held at QT Gold Coast from 15-16 October 2018. The Event Program has been finalised and boasts the best line-up of speakers, sessions, panels and thought-provoking insights ever compiled for a NACRO Conference. More delegates than ever before have already registered and […]
In abeautifully titled article ‘Fashion But Make it Second Hand’, Elle Australia presents 10 useful op shopping tips from women who only buy second hand. For tips one to ten, read on.
Supermodel Helena Christensen says shops in thrift shops. Female First in the UK have her quoting “I shop at second-hand stores and online. I find much more joy in finding pieces that have been lived-in and are unique”. Spread the word. Op shopping truly does inspire joy, with pieces that are unique and have been […]
Reports that a defunct computer screen dropped at an Australian retailer for recycling was shipped to a junkyard in Thailand have renewed calls for Australia to get serious about e-waste controls, with calls for Australia to support international ban on such exports. Under current laws any such waste should have been sent to an approved recycler […]
We use our phones to do everything from delivering our favorite late night cravings to tracking our exercise. So why can’t we use the technology we engage with on a regular basis to do something good for the planet? Recycle Track Systems works like a typical App and gives users the ability to schedule on-demand […]
Sweden “recycles nearly all of its waste” and in doing so “generates electricity and heating”. So should Australia become more like Sweden and make our waste useful? Sweden has banned most landfill and has invested heavily with 34 waste-to-energy plants currently operating, with their first built in the 1940s! With half the waste in Sweden recycled and 49% of […]
Vive La France. France will roll out a series of measures to accelerate President Emmanuel Macron’s goal of reaching 100% plastic recycling by 2025. Junior Environment Minister Brune Poirson added “Declaring war on plastic is not enough. We need to transform the French economy.” Economic transformation and encouraging consumers to recycle is the key. For […]
Janet Gunter, co-founder of The Restart Project estimates that 1,000 Titanics’ worth of discarded electronics is dumped in the UK, with much of it extremely toxic if mishandled. In 2017, the United Nations University’s Global E-waste Monitor predicted global e-waste would hit 50 million tonnes this year — three million tonnes of it being small […]
An American company is in the business of turning blue things into green, and giving new life to jeans. Its an example of effective down cycling, with the former garment not recycled for more fashion use, but to meet commercial demand for insulation for homes and office buildings and fibre for bedding. Ultimately, the success […]
The Council for Textile Recycling in the USA estimates that 10,000 tonnes of textiles, in the form of clothes, shoes, accessories, manchester and accessories ends up in landfill. That’s 37kg on average of every person. How to divert these unusable donations from landfill and create new opportunities for recycling or down cycling is a key […]
The EPA NSW’s Product Improvement Program is open to applications, with individual grants of $50,000 to $1 million available. The program supports co-investment in infrastructure projects that aim to improve the quality of recycled materials, reduce the amount of unrecyclable material left at the end of the process, increase the amount of waste materials recycled, […]
The Queensland Government has released a comprehensive paper outlining the process for introducing a waste levy, which includes an exemptions system.
Government’s ‘Delivering a New Plan for the Future of Recycling’ media release
The leaders of the charitable recycling sector will be on the Gold Coast during 15-16 October, attending the NACRO Annual Conference 2018. Join them – register today. 90% of members said they want to know the Future of Recycling. So that’s the conference theme. More specifically, the Future of Recycling, Retail and Responsible Donating. Each […]
Vinnies NSW has launched a second Bulk Container Deposit Centre as part of the state’s container deposit scheme. The Unanderra facility can process up to 100,000 containers per day, and complements existing over-the-counter sites and reverse vending machines with an efficient way to process large volumes of eligible containers. Container deposit refunds can be received […]
Even in the luxury market. The meteoric rise of resale sites such as TrueFacet and Tradesy that provide dedicated environments for buying and selling pre-owned prestige watches and jewellery by offering guarantees of authenticity, has been achieved through best-in-class Search engine Optimisation (SEO). For example, TrueFacet mentions “Tiffany” 121 times on its Tiffany gallery page and […]
The Hon. Stephen Dawson MLC, Minister for Environment has invited NACRO to join Western Australia’s Container Deposit Scheme (CDS) Advisory Group. Ro Richardson of the Western Australian Department of Environment Regulation gave NACRO members a thorough brief on the CDS opportunities for charitable recyclers, during the WA NACRO Members Meeting on 7 May 2018. For […]
ThredUp is an online retail platform seeking to reinventing second-hand shopping by disintermediating op shops and sending clothes direct to consumers. As Australian op shops look to develop their online offerings, ThredUp needs to be on the radar. Here’s a product review and individual perspective from Cheap Chic.
Forget panning for gold or extracting copper ore. A new study shows that recovering metals from discarded electronics, a process known as urban mining, is far less expensive than mining them the traditional way. In 2016 alone, the world discarded 44.7 million metric tons of unusable or simply unwanted electronics. A Chinese study found that organisations […]
For most people, once they lift the lid and throw their rubbish in the wheelie bin, their household waste is out of sight, out of mind. Gunther Hoppe, chief executive of the Mindarie Regional Council in Western Australia is hoping to challenge this mindset by putting wheelie bin contents on display. As a trial to […]
Germany and Wales have seemingly mastered their waste problem. They could help Australia as it grapples with China’s ban on contaminated recyclable material. Having set an ambitious target to achieve zero waste by 2030, Wales could soon overtake Germany as the world’s leading recycling nation. Germany is so good at recycling they have even found a […]
Emergency measures in response to China’s ban on foreign waste, like stockpiling, landfilling or trying to find other international destinations for our recycling are not sustainable long-term solutions. We need a broad debate on a long-term rethink for an innovative, sustainable recycling sector – with all stakeholders coming together. Read The Conversation’s re-think suggestions here
The Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR) has laid out a roadmap that starts with harmonising bins nationally ($28M), upgrading sorting centres ($33M), developing more factories to produce paper pulp and plastic pellets ($57M), using raw materials for infrastructure ($32M) and burning waste into energy. ACOR’s strategic vision on strategic focus areas and where upgrades are […]
In the lead up to the Meeting of Environment Ministers (MEM), the Greens released an industry blueprint on waste recycling, designed to expand the Australian waste management system to replace the need to export recyclables. The Greens want to spend $500 million over five years on infrastructure and programs to improve recycling with a national […]
At the Meeting of Environment Ministers (MEM) on 27 April 2017 the Commonwealth Minister for the Environment and Energy and the Environment Minister from each Australian state and territory agreed to:. • Reduce the amount of waste and make it easier for products to be recycled. • Increase the demand for recycled products, and create […]
Consumer polling conducted by Crosby Textor shows that 89% of people support governments taking more action to create a sustainable recycling industry.
Have your say about NACRO in this short, easy multiple-choice survey. Your feedback on how we’re performing, what your needs are and what NACRO’s key priorities should be will help inform our strategy for 2018-19. We are developing an ambitious new strategic plan, but we need your input. Together we can achieve so much more, so […]
The Queensland Government has confirmed plans to reintroduce a waste levy in a bid to stop interstate waste entering the state. Full details have yet to be released but the Deputy Premier Jackie Trad has suggested that it may likely be around $50-$70 per tonne, and that it will be designed so it does not […]
The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation in WA has advised that applications are now open for the charitable recyclers dumping reduction program.
The NSW Government is committed to reducing all types of illegal dumping across the state by 30% by 2020. This includes the illegal dumping on charities
After nine years, my team and I are stepping down from managing the National Association of Charitable Recycling Organisations. It has been an honour to serve the association and a privilege to work with a wonderful series of Chairs, namely Ken Richardson (Lifeline), Cathy Bray (The Smith Family), John Hillier (UnitingCare) and Michael Skudutis (Salvos […]
ABS data in 2016-17 showed Australian exports of “worn clothing and other worn textile articles” was 93,502,966 kilos.
Chief Executive of Salvos Stores, Matt Davis, said in a recent interview that the stark drop in donations — especially second-hand furniture — due to platforms such as Facebook and Gumtree is of concern. “Over the past 18 months we’ve really begun noticing a drop in donations. We think the timing of Facebook Marketplace, Buy […]
The Observatory of Economic Complexity is a tool that allows users to quickly compose a visual narrative about countries and the products they exchange.
New York State Attorney General recently announced that over 4,700 donation collection bins throughout New York now disclose whether clothing or other items deposited in those bins are used for charitable or for-profit purposes in compliance with a new state law that imposes strict regulations on the placement, maintenance, and transparency of collection bins across […]
Northumbria Police and several UK newspapers have reported an arrested of six people after a number of dawn raids as part of an investigation into Modern Day Slavery in Newcastle – with potential victims believed to have been collecting charity bags. An investigation was launched last year after Northumbria Police received intelligence about a suspected […]
SCRgroup is launching a number of new services in 2018, including a home pick-up service; and clothing and electrical “Drop-Off Hubs”. Residents of Maribyrnong City Council now have access to 18 clothing and electrical drop-off hubs to dispose of unwanted textile and electrical items at six sites across the municipality. See the Maribyrnong City Council […]
The Queensland Member for Ipswich West, Jim Madden recently proposed the reintroduction of the landfill levy as a solution to reducing the level of dumping in Ipswich. Sadly the good Mr Madden has not linked the dots between increased levies and dumping on charities. Read the article at this link. After four months the report […]
We’re excited to announce that our new and refreshed NACRO website is live after months of development. There’s a whole host of material, facts and figures, all to enhance the experience of the finding more about charitable recycling.The site even features an Op Shop locator. When we started the project we had big ideas to […]
Gumtree’s annual Second Hand Economy Report, conducted by Galaxy Research in August 2017 is based on a survey of 1004 adults, aged 18 to 64.
Sadly, the festive time of the year is reliably the worst for shameful behaviour by a select few who dump on charities. This year was no different. Members used social and traditional media to call for responsible donating. The media used strong terms such as “lazy idiots” but still the deluge continued. Following are some […]
In a recent article published and syndicated by the Herald Sun, NACRO criticized the diversion of charitable goods and services to private companies as a waste of resources. In response to the proliferation of donations away from benevolent organisation, much of which is being enabled by local councils, NACRO forewarned a call on the State […]
Does your donation count or cost? Understanding donating and dumping behaviours and their impacts for Queensland charities.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s new report “A new textiles economy: Redesigning fashion’s future´ confirms members’ views…
RESYNTEX is a research project which aims to create a new circular economy concept for the textile and chemical industries.
The latest Quarterly Market Analysis Report (July to September 2017) published by the UK Charity Retail Association in early December 2017, saw strong sales indicators, including a 5.7 per cent like for like income growth. Plus 80 per cent of the report respondents saw positive growth in donated goods sales. Additionally, between Q3 2016 and Q3 2017, […]
The blockchain community launched a Philanthropy Foundation in September 2017, to promote the use of Blockchain technology in the not-for-profit sector to generate income. The Foundation’s mission includes “building a new revenue stream for charities by providing a Blockchain-powered technology platform, as well as tools, training and support”. The Harvard Business Review defines blockchain as the technology at the […]
Michigan’s Attorney General has filed a lawsuit against ATRS, a Texas-headquartered company that owns and operates 251 clothing donation bins in the state, for deceptively operating the collection bins. The bins state that the Michigan Humane Society “receives 100% of the market value of every donation received at this location.” However, by contract, ATRS pays the Michigan […]
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s new report “A new textiles economy: Redesigning fashion’s future´ confirms members’ views that the steady production growth in fast fashion is intrinsically linked to a decline in utilisation per item, leading to an incredible amount of waste. It is estimated that more than half of fast fashion production is disposed of […]
Greenpeace released a report, Fashion at the Crossroad, at the Milan Fashion Week 2017…
Waste and Resources Action Programme was set up in the UK in 2000 to promote sustainable waste management…
In the third episode of ABC’s “War on Waste,” Craig Reucassel explored the impact that fast fashion has on our environment…
An investigation by Greenpeace in 2014 found a broad range of hazardous chemicals in children’s clothing and footwear across a number of major clothing brands, including fast fashion, sportswear and luxury brands.
Illegal dumping is a persistent problem across Australia, imposing significant costs on those affected…
This video from 2013 captures the extent of pilfering is endured by charity op shops…
Private and public land managers are urged to support charity recyclers when considering the placement of clothing donation bins on their properties. NACRO members and communities around Australia have demonstrated that prominently located recycling collection bin are a very effective method of collecting clothing donations for distribution to those in need and resale through their […]
A story of big brands and water pollution in Indonesia.
Undertaken in 2009 in the UK , this project was commissioned by Defra as part of the Sustainable Clothing Roadmap industry initiative. The study identifies facts and recommendations for maximising reuse and recycling of end of life UK clothing. The overall aim of this project is to report up-to-date, comprehensive and robust data on the quality and quantity […]