Australian charity and social enterprise retailers are forced to send over 80,000 tonnes of unusable donations to landfill every year, primarily due to illegal dumping and unusable donations.
Not only does this increase waste and result in lower rates of resource recovery and reuse, but it means that these retailers are forced to spend $18 million on waste management and disposal every year, via waste contractor fees and site clean-up costs.
We believe there is significant opportunity for the State and Federal governments to offset the impacts of illegal dumping and provide a foundation of support for charitable reuse and recycling enterprises.
*Note: This policy position was written prior to the rebrand of Charitable Reuse Australia. As a result, we are referred to as The National Association of Charitable Recycling Organisations throughout. Additionally, new data has emerged since this position was published, showing that illegal dumping and unusable donations result in 80,000 tonnes being sent to landfill every year.