Planet Ark releases checklist to make recycling easier

Aussie not-for-profit environmental protection organisation Planet Ark has developed a checklist for choosing the right recycler that it says will help business ensure their waste is recycled correctly.

Under environmental legislation, a business that generates waste may have a legal obligation to ensure that the transporter and the facility receiving its waste has the legal authority to undertake the relevant activity and may be held responsible if they do the wrong thing.

The checklist, which provides a set of questions that business owners can ask a potential recycling service, contains 12,735 listings of re-use, recycling, collection and drop-off locations and services across the country for more than 90 different materials.

Planet Ark established the free service in partnership with the NSW and Queensland Governments and integrated document management systems company Pitney Bowes. MobileMuster, a mobile phone recycler, has also partnered with Planet Ark on this initiative.

 “Australian businesses are already well serviced with responsible programs like ‘Cartridges 4 Planet Ark’ and MobileMuster and increasingly paper and cardboard is being recovered,” Brad Gray from Planet Ark explains. “As waste costs increase, it makes business sense to look for recycling options for the wide range of other materials generated by business.”

The checklist is available at www.businessrecycling.com.au and business owners can enter their post code and the type of material they’re seeking to recycle to find a list of approved recyclers near them.

“Although businesses are getting better at recycling, they are still throwing away huge amounts of valuable materials like metals, which are easily recyclable.”

According to 2010 NSW Government report Environmental Benefits of Recycling, metal recycling generates the greatest environmental benefits – by recycling one tonne of metal, the greenhouse gases saved is the equivalent to taking 2.2 cars off the road permanently, saving 1.8 backyard pools of water and powering 4.6 households per year.

Follow @mybusinessau on Twitter for breaking stories throughout the day.

Register now to receive the FREE weekly My Business Headlines e-newsletter, which every Tuesday morning delivers all the latest news for SMEs straight to your inbox. Find out why you should join the SME Association of Australia.

 

---