19 January 2016

CRN Success in Large-Scale Reuse Approach

One person’s junk is another person’s treasure has been put into practice with a new approach to inorganic collection in Auckland.

The Community Recycling Network (CRN) is contracted by Auckland Council to distribute goods collected in the citywide inorganic collection by Waste Management. CRN works with organisations that can use the second hand goods, resulting in less waste going landfill, creating jobs and generating revenue for community benefit.

CRN Project Manager Sei Brown said they were already hitting five full truckloads per day at peak and the project was operating at less than half of the seven Auckland collection areas.

Mr Brown said part of the success was due to Aucklanders putting out good quality reusable items for collection in the knowledge that CRN would help find new homes for their unwanted items.

“We have been able to find new homes for things like antiques and bicycles, whiteware and power tools, beds and furniture. Bric-a-brac has been very popular among our charity shops,” he said.

One of the highlights had been the formation of a new social enterprise to provide a solution for items that would have ended up in the landfill, Mr Brown said.

“We had a sea of fridges, washing machines and dryers covering the warehouse floor in the first six weeks.”

As a result, Envision NZ Director Matthew Luxon set up a social enterprise on site, Resource Rescue. He has employed two people to test and repair and clean the appliances before on-selling them.

“As well as giving used appliances new life, Resource Rescue provides a great training pathway for employment,” Mr Luxon said. “A worker might start by cleaning machines, then learn some basic repair skills, become trained for tag and test, pick up more specialist skills and gain qualifications and registration as an electrical serviceperson.”

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