Reduce the Trash and Repair the Treasure

After Christmas it’s worth a walk around your local neighbourhood to see what gets thrown out in clean up collections as households make way for new items. I work with Sydney Councils and late December and January are usually when you see a huge increase in dumping and booked clean up collections. Unfortunately, many of the products thrown out are not designed for durability, repair or even recycling.

In Sydney we are running out of landfill, so it’s time to reduce the ‘trash’ entering the Australian market.  We can do this through tougher regulations on products imported or Australian made that can’t be easily repaired or recycled.

We also need longer lasting products that we can treasure, reuse and repair easily. Dreaming of a new dishwasher or fridge this Christmas? Wouldn’t it be great if there was a repair star rating on appliances similar to the Australian Energy Star, so you could choose a model that’s easier to repair. A repair star rating would help inform consumers to be able choose more repairable products and incentivise manufacturers to design products that are more durable and easier to repair.

Producers can step up and share responsibility for the products they put in the market by designing out hazardous materials and offering take back collection systems for old products. Household waste collection systems aren’t designed for products with hazardous materials. We have seen this with the estimated 10,000 fires in Australia each year caused by lithium-ion batteries[1].

Australia needs to transition to regulatory or co-regulatory product stewardship (PS) schemes as a signal to brands, importers and distributors that products must be made with minimum design standards, and share responsibility for the cost of safely collecting, treating and processing these products at the end of their lifecycle.

When you buy your next product, wouldn’t you love to feel more confident it will last, and that the company you buy it from has made it easier to repair? Let’s collaborate to design out the trash and repair the treasure.

[1] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-20/lithium-ion-batteries-10000-fires-australia-waste-management/104002912