Award Winners 2021

ALEX YOUNG
Systems Thinking and Pragmatism

Alex Young of the NSW EPA won the Product Stewardship Champion of the Year Award for 2021 at the inaugural Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence (PSCoE) Awards.  

The award is designed to recognise those individuals or teams who have had a singular impact in driving stewardship forward in Australia.  

“Alex Young is a champion of product stewardship in Australia and most deserving of this award,” said Rose Read, Director of the PSCoE.   

Mr Young came to Australia in 2002 with a strong foundation in product stewardship theory and practice.  

He studied Masters (Environmental Management) in Sweden, where he was taught by Thomas Lindquist, who first introduced the concept of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in the 1990s.   

He’d also been involved in research on the impact of EU Environmental Product Policy on eco-design, waste minimisation and environmental supply chain management.  

From setting up the first product stewardship computer take-back trial in NSW (in partnership with industry), to leading the design, development, implementation, and ongoing management of the NSW container deposit scheme (Return and Earn), Alex has played a pivotal role in shaping and implementing product stewardship policy at both a state and national level.   

He has contributed significantly to establishing and monitoring product stewardship schemes including the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme and leading the delivery of the NSW government’s EPR Priority Statement, identifying priority wastes for product stewardship action.  

Alex has proven himself to be a systems thinker and pragmatist driven by achieving outcomes and impact across sectors and communities.   

Mr Young says he values good public policy which is evidence based and data driven.  

“First, there should be good evidence a problem exists. If this is the case, we can then look at the different policy tools that could be used to fix the problem. One of these may be product stewardship, but good evidence to support action is a must,” he said.  

Mr Young notes there are some real benefits to being a champion of product stewardship within the public service, especially when it comes to forward movement. 

“If government wants to make something happen, it happens.”  

Additional to the role of government, the value of industry champions is not lost on Mr Young, who enjoys working with industry leaders and helping to amplify their voices with the support of government.  

“The role government is not just hard regulation, it’s about working with industry to achieve a position where no one is disadvantaged by doing the right thing, and outcomes are practical and workable,” he said.  

Alex demonstrates the value of expert knowledge and thought leadership in the public service. The work that passionate champions of product stewardship like Alex do in governments across Australia is immensely valuable to our community and the PSCoE is pleased to have been able to recognise this good work.  

“Australia is very fortunate to have Alex, and this award acknowledges him for his contribution as one of Australia’s leading policy-makers, with a sharp focus on stewardship solutions and resource recovery,” said Ms Read.  

When asked about what it meant to him to win the Product Stewardship Champion of the Year Award, he said it was completely unexpected but very much an honour to be recognised.   

“I was quite moved by it,” he added.   

The Product Stewardship Excellence awards recognise excellence and action in product stewardship and seek to raise the profile of stewardship in business, Government and NGOs. 

The Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence thanks our awards sponsor Kmart for their support and on-going commitment to product stewardship.  

Written for the Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence by Rachael Wilkinson, Ai Group.  

JANET LESLIE
Persistence, Focus and Commitment 

Janet Leslie of Canon Oceania won the Product Stewardship Champion of the Year Award for 2021 at the inaugural Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence (PSCoE) Awards.  

The award is designed to recognise those individuals or teams who have had a singular impact in driving stewardship forward in Australia.  

“Janet Leslie is a most deserving champion of product stewardship in Australia. She is a strong advocate for national, multi-stakeholder stewardship schemes and her expertise has been key to delivering positive sustainability outcomes across several product categories,” said John Gertsakis, Director of the PSCoE.   

“In addition to her role as Sustainability Manager with Canon Oceania, she has made a significant contribution to the design and implementation of the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme (NTCRS), Cartridges 4 Planet Ark, and the recently launched battery stewardship scheme.” 

“Ms Leslie’s track-record clearly demonstrates a deep understanding of high-quality product stewardship solutions through both industry programs and company initiatives,” said Mr Gertsakis.  

She has also played a pivotal role in other industry-wide projects such as the establishment of the Australia New Zealand Recycling Platform (ANZRP).  

The award also recognises Canon’s role in promoting, supporting, and investing in national recycling schemes.  

“It seems that the circular economy’s time has come and it’s a very exciting time to be involved in the field of product stewardship,” Ms Leslie said.  

Ms Leslie’s early interest in stewardship came from studying sustainability at ANU in the 1970’s. She was particularly influenced by books such as The Limits to Growth published by the Club of Rome in 1972, and Ernst Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful, with their messages that we need to protect our planet’s resources and temper our materialist tendencies.  

She later went on to work at Standards Australia where she was involved in international standards development for environmental management and implementing the ISO 14001 series of standards in Australia and the region. 

“The one thing I learned during this interesting and exciting time was how quickly international agreement could be reached, when the desire was there,” she said.   

In the mid-2000s she was doing environmental consulting work, which is how she was introduced to the Cartridges for Planet Ark scheme. The program was implemented by Close the Loop and Planet Ark in conjunction with printer companies including Canon.  

She began work at Canon in 2006 where she became involved through various industry associations and other responsible electronics companies in efforts to establish a national product stewardship scheme for end-of-life electronics (e-waste). This process demonstrated for her again what can be achieved by government and industry collaborating with good will towards a common goal.  

The NTCRS was born in 2011 and industry formed the not for profit, industry-run product stewardship organisation ANZRP, which remains a thought leader and standards setter in electronics product stewardship. 

“It’s exciting to see more progress in product stewardship in Australia. For example, we are now seeing toner from cartridges not only being recycled into roads, but actually improving the performance of them. There is also significant investment underway by ANZRP and others to improve the quality and value of the material resulting from the e-waste recycling process, and we are moving closer to realising real circular economy outcomes.”  

However, despite these wins, working in sustainability and product stewardship isn’t always easy. Ms Leslie understands the complexity, and the benefits of designing and operationalising authentic product stewardship initiatives. Her informed views and expertise have managed to highlight the value and role of product stewardship and corporate social responsibility more broadly. 

“People who work as sustainability managers quite often have to do battle to change hearts and minds, but one of the things that is so enjoyable about this job is working with other like-minded people. Industry colleagues, retailers, research organisations and governments can all work together to achieve something of lasting value.  We may be limited on our own, but together we can accomplish meaningful change,” she reflected.  

So, what’s next for product stewardship as far as Ms Leslie is concerned? The answer is simple, “real circular economy, and decarbonisation.”  

“It’s often still cheaper for manufacturers to buy virgin product [rather than recycled] but investment in technology can help to alleviate this and make real circular economy incentives much easier.”  

When asked what winning the Product Stewardship Champion of the Year Award meant to her, Ms Leslie said it was gratifying and unexpected.  

“It’s nice to be acknowledged by your peers – it’s actually one of the highest compliments you can have. It’s re-energised me.”  

The Product Stewardship Excellence awards recognise excellence and action in product stewardship and seek to raise the profile of stewardship in business, Government and NGOs.  

The Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence thanks our awards sponsor Kmart for their support and on-going commitment to product stewardship. 

Written for the Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence by Rachael Wilkinson, Ai Group.  

 

BATA SHOES
Stamping out waste 

Bata Shoe Company of Australia won the Award for Best Stewardship Outcomes (Single Business or Brand) at the inaugural Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence (PSCoE) Awards.  

Bata’s PVC Recycle program was set up to reduce the amount of PVC gumboots ending up in landfill.   

National Sales Manager Leigh Ramsden said used boots were re-processed into raw materials to create new Bata PVC gumboots consisting of 50% recycled content.  

“Unfortunately, there is a lot of waste in the industry, and we wanted to find out how we could fix that,” Mr Ramsden said.   

“Most people in the food industry only wear them for six weeks and then they go to the bin because they wear out. Food processing plants and abattoirs have a fine grit on the floor to prevent slips, trips and falls but that just wears through the PVC at the bottom. Once the main grip or sole wears off, they have to be replaced for safety purposes.”  

Formerly synonymous with leather lace-ups for school children, Bata is now a major player in gumboots, selling more than 550,000 pairs in Australia this year alone.  

“There has been a whole transition from the school shoe business which we were predominately known for into industrial safety in gumboots,” Mr Ramsden said.  

“We still do school shoes but not to the extent that we did 10-15 years ago.”  

Bata is passionate about adding to the circular economy.  

“We need to take as much waste out of landfill and try to reuse where possible,” Mr Ramsden said.  

“We live in one of the greatest places in the world with so much natual beauty, and we don’t want to be responsible for destroying that. So how can we play our part?  

“Our main objective is to have zero used or worn PVC gumboots being disposed into landfill and to help our customers responsibly dispose of their used boots.  

“We are working to set up easy-to-use recycle disposal bins nationwide in collaboration with our current distributors.”  

Bata’s noble endeavour is not without challenge, which makes the award win all the more rewarding.   

“Our biggest stumbling block to get the program up and really running is the cost,” Mr Ramsden said.  

“At the moment, we’re absorbing that cost. We’re taking a loss as a business to do the right thing and try to get momentum going.  

“We won’t be competitive if we push up prices when you’ve got imported product coming in at a lower cost. So, if we can sort out the freight of returning the used gumboots, we’re good to go.  

“Australia is massive so getting gumboots back from WA, for example, is a huge cost.”   

Sharing costs with likeminded businesses is a solution Bata is exploring to make the program viable.  

“If we work with more manufacturers or other industry partners bringing gumboots or things like PPE and hard hats back and we can share that cost across the board, it reduces the cost.  

“Maybe we have centralised points in each state that we bring stuff back to or maybe we work together and share the cost across the board.    

“It’s the only stumbling block, not just for us, but for everyone. Together is better.”  

The PSCoE Award is already helping to create awareness of the PVC Recycle program.  

“This award has brought some amazing recognition to the program, which is fantastic,” Mr Ramsden said.   

“We’ve had people reach out to us asking how they could get involved.  

“Slowly but surely, more and more people are coming on board and the award has sped this process up.  

“However, we don’t want this to be just about ourselves. It would be ideal to have more companies reach out and say: ‘Congratulations. How can we do something like that? Can we partner with you?’ or ‘We’ve got PVC products; can you recycle them?’”  

Rachael Wilkinson, a Senior Adviser at the Centre of Excellence, said product stewardship schemes across Australia face similar issues.  

“We need to look at our freight logistics options for moving product around with the explicit purpose of recycling it,” she said.  

“It’s about scale. That’s part of the reason the judges saw the potential for this project — to scale, which is what we need for anything to be successful, particularly in Australia, because of our geography and the costs associated with moving things around.  

“It’s not easy. It would be great to see some thought given to funding individual businesses who are doing projects such as Bata’s.”   

It’s wonderful to see businesses winning awards for being ahead of the curve and proactive about doing something,” she added. 

“The sky is the limit with collaboration but in order to get that collective, often you do need that one business who pioneers something and says: ‘Look guys, it can be done. Join us to make something happen.’  

“That’s why these awards are so valuable. They spotlight those businesses who are putting themselves out there and coming up with something innovative and being an example to the rest of the industry and an inspiration to other industries who might think: ‘The humble gumboot . . . maybe we’ve got a product that we could incorporate recycled inputs into.’”   

Product stewardship acknowledges that those involved in designing, manufacturing and selling products have a responsibility to ensure those products or materials are managed in a way that reduces their environmental and human health impacts, throughout the life cycle and across the supply chain.   

It aims to drive environmentally beneficial outcomes through good design and clean manufacturing, including the use of components and materials that are easier to recover, reuse and recycle.  

The Product Stewardship Excellence awards recognise excellence and action in product stewardship and seek to raise the profile of stewardship in business, Government and NGOs. 

The Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence thanks our awards sponsor Kmart for their support and on-going commitment to product stewardship. 

Written for the Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence by Wendy Larter, Ai Group.  

MOBILEMUSTER
Doing Good with Old Phones 

MobileMuster won the award for Best Stewardship Outcomes (Scheme or Industry Collective) at the inaugural Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence (PSCoE) Awards in 2021.   

The awards program is designed to recognise, celebrate, and promote the best of the best when it comes to high performance stewardship solutions.  

The Judges said MobileMuster won because they are a long-standing government accredited product stewardship scheme that has demonstrated significant commitment to consumer education and business engagement in keeping mobile phones out of landfill. 

“Successful outcomes have been achieved with respect to recycling, thanks to strong support from members of the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA),” said the Judges.  

“The award win acknowledges that industry can work together to achieve great stewardship outcomes. The success of this scheme has taken a lot of hard work, but when industry members are involved in designing the program, it gives them a great sense of ownership,” said Spyro Kalos, Head of MobileMuster.  

“What makes MobileMuster unique is that brand owners who fund the program work together on the marketing, communications and operational workplan. To have the industry being recognised for all of the work and effort they put into making MobileMuster a success is a great outcome.”  

MobileMuster is voluntarily funded by all the major handset manufacturers and network carriers to provide a free mobile phone recycling program in Australia. Their collection network provides over 3,000 public drop off points across the country and includes a free post back option. 

“AMTA and its members have always supported a voluntary approach to product stewardship.  MobileMuster is a solid example how a voluntary scheme can work successfully delivering real social and environmental outcomes.  There is value for brand owners when participating in a voluntary scheme, where in our case it can become an extension of their brand and their circular economy and sustainability work,” said Mr Kalos.  

For many of its brand owners, the story of MobileMuster itself is very much part of their story, and for his part, Mr Kalos says he feels lucky to be working for such an innovative industry. 

He did go on to say that where industry fails to step up, then regulation could be the motivator needed. 

But success did not happen overnight.  

“It’s taken 23 years for the program to get to where it is,” said Mr Kalos.  

“You don’t need everyone in your industry participating from day one. As you build and grow a scheme, others will fall in. You just need to start.  This is part of our success story; it has taken a lot of work of industry engagement for the program to achieve an industry participation rate of over 90%. And today we see brand owners coming to us to be part of the story.”  

“It’s exciting to be part of a successful scheme, but there is certainly pressure to continually perform and keep momentum going. We should be asking questions about what’s next. Questions like what value product stewardship can add to the greater idea of Circular Economy. Until now, Product Stewardship activity has been focused on end of life and recycling – but what are the other things we can do?”  

MobileMuster is considering their place in the re-use and repair story, and their role in terms of the materials recovered by the scheme.  

“That’s what makes MobileMuster so exciting. We continue to look for new opportunities, and it isn’t just MobileMuster that wants to change. The motivator in terms of how we evolve, is our members. They are driving the change, it’s not just the AMTA,” he said.   

For Mr Kalos and MobileMuster, expansion is on the horizon, with plans to extend the scheme to include complementary items like landline and home technology.  

“Because we collect and dismantle so much, we can feed back information to brand owners about how hard or easy it is to recycle their products. Some brand owners are now even asking us if there is an opportunity to use the materials that we are recovering in their own manufacturing processes.”  

This is a big part of what’s next for MobileMuster, who are interested in finding ways to close the loop and make sure the material they collect, recycle, and recover can one day go back into phones and other technology recovered by the scheme.   

When asked about repair, Mr Kalos noted that it’s a complicated issue. 

“Product stewardship schemes need not compete against natural market forces. In the case of repair, I see our role as more educational. We can support the community with education on how to manage data when reusing through selling, passing on or repairing and this can help with barriers created by these concerns. We can also help educate the community on the protections they have under Australian Consumer Law.” 

“In areas where repair is not happening, there may be a greater role for schemes,” he added.  

Product stewardship has come a long way in Australia in the last few years, with substantial funding and support through the National Product Stewardship Investment Fund and the Recycling Modernisation Fund.  

“We should be calling out the Department of Agriculture Water and Environment as well as then Assistant Minister for Waste Reduction and Environmental Management, Trevor Evans, for being a catalyst for bringing product stewardship to the forefront and proxviding the funding needed to grow new schemes and expand existing ones.” 

“Governments play a role in establishing the framework to help industry succeed,” said Mr Kalos.  

The Product Stewardship Excellence awards recognise excellence and action in product stewardship and seek to raise the profile of stewardship in business, Government and NGOs. 

The Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence thanks our awards sponsor Kmart for their support and on-going commitment to product stewardship. 

Written for the Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence by Rachael Wilkinson, Ai Group.  

 

COMMENDATION

BIG BAG RECOVERY
Stewardship that’s in the bag 

Big Bag Recovery were awarded a commendation for the Innovation in Industry-Led Product Stewardship Scheme Design category at the inaugural Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence (PSCoE) Awards in 2021.   

The awards program is designed to recognise, celebrate, and promote the best of the best when it comes to high performance stewardship solutions.  

In awarding this commendation, the Award judges recognised the potential for this scheme to further develop and expand to address the significant challenge of plastics in agriculture, mining construction and other regional activities. This recently government accredited scheme works to ensure that bags for fertiliser, mulch, salt, sugar, and explosives over 15kg or 15L are collected and recycled. 

When asked what the commendation means to Big Bag Recovery, Managing Director Stephen Richards said, “Personally, it’s just a great recognition for a lot of hard work over a long period of time. It also adds credibility to the program and gives potential participants some confidence in who we are and what we’re doing.” 

“We started on this journey in 2015 [and] we are completely invested in it.” 

Big Bag Recovery began as a stewardship program for recovery of farm waste, which has expanded to include woven polypropylene and low-density polyethylene sacks and bulk bags from scheme members across multiple industries. 

“[Big Bag Recovery] is for all packaging over 15kg of size, so that’s all industries. While it started in agriculture, that’s not just where it is now. We’re looking to get into food manufacturing and all of those [companies] that have large ingredients coming in in bulk bags, for them to participate in the program. Dulux joined the program just recently, a major paint manufacturer, so it’s really about inviting all industries to participate, to meet their social and regulatory obligations.” 

“We’re really focused on diversity of membership now. Making sure that many different industries are aware of the program and start to participate. And where we have positioned ourselves very clearly is as the next step in the supply chain from REDcycle, who does consumer packaging, so people can understand that your larger bags actually have a place to be.” 

When asked what happens to the bags and sacks that Big Bag Recovery collects, Mr Richards expounded, “Big Bag Recovery is completely different to most product stewardship programs, because we actually control the product that we collect. So once we’ve collected the plastic, we then retain responsibility of that plastic for its next life cycle. We’re looking to manufacture these bags into resin and then manufacture [that resin] into new products. But critical to that is making sure we get new members coming through, so that there is a critical mass to underpin the success of product manufacture.” 

“We are very much in the product development phase, but we have got some products that we are in [the design phase of] for manufacture, and we are speaking to customers that are looking to buy the products that we’re looking to manufacture. They are going to be agriculturally and regionally based and centric. So predominately we are looking to be able to use the plastic in locations where we collect the plastic… Local is really, really important.” 

So how can the wider community get involved? Mr Richards explained “It starts with – obviously – people letting us know that there’s bags in their particular area, and then we’ll work closely with a community group or where they’ve actually bought the bags from, as well as local governments, to try and make [collection] as easy as possible. But 90 percent of what we collect is actually done business to business. For the greatest quantity of volume, it’s not actually done at the community level.” 

When asked what the best advice he could give to anyone looking to get involved with a scheme or trying to start or expand their own scheme was, Mr Richards said “It will take longer than you expect. You have to do your homework, continually revise and just because it is right, doesn’t mean people will do it.” 

The Product Stewardship Excellence awards recognise excellence and action in product stewardship and seek to raise the profile of stewardship in business, Government and NGOs. 

The Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence thanks our awards sponsor Kmart for their support and on-going commitment to product stewardship. 

Written for the Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence by Molly Knox, Ai Group. 

 

RECOLLECT
Convenience is Key 

ReCollect won the award for Digitalisation in Product Stewardship at the inaugural Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence Awards in 2021.   

The awards program is designed to recognise, celebrate, and promote the best of the best when it comes to high performance stewardship solutions with impact.  

ReCollect provides consumers with a pick-up service for the recycling of bottles, cans, mobile phones, electronics, and clothes which can be booked via an app from the ‘comfort of the couch.’  

“This award recognised the innovative thinking and practical application of digital tools to facilitate product stewardship via pick-up collection of beverage containers with the option to easily donate the proceeds to charity,” said the Judges.   

“Pleasingly a growing range of other waste streams can also be managed via the platform, including mobile phones in the ACT with the potential to expand to other waste streams.”  

The judges also noted their appreciation for a tool that makes product stewardship more accessible to the community.  

“It has been very pleasing to see the value of ‘Constantly Curious’ (innovation) come to life through the implementation of a door-to-door pick-up service for eligible containers in Container Deposit Schemes (CDS) here in Australia,’ said Laurie Minto, General Manager – Growth & Customers, Return-It.  

“This award win validates our thinking around what we can achieve with digitalisation.”  

“ReCollect is a world-class App…It plays an essential role in CDS, delivering the ultimate convenience and accessibility through picking up Aussie’s eligible containers from their home or workplace. It is also an enabler for charities, community groups, and social enterprises.”  

“We all live busy lives; this is one way to promote community participation in product stewardship programs by simplifying the process and bringing it to the door.”  

Improved collection aside, achieving better end-of-life outcomes for collected materials is not without challenge.  Like most organisations delivering Product Stewardship programs, what we do with collected materials remains an ongoing challenge. Finding markets for these materials is an essential step towards achieving greater circularity, “for example, you can collect textiles, but where do they go from there?” said Mr Minto.  

Regardless of the challenge, ReCollect believes in working towards a zero-waste society and keeping products out of landfill.  

“We are committed to leveraging our position in CDS to help support other Product Stewardship programs and opportunities,” he said.   

Most importantly ReCollect is working on its forward strategy. Mr Minto told the Centre of Excellence that there is a clear plan to expand the collection of CDS eligible containers. They also hope to roll-out their solutions into other states, including Victoria when the state’s new CDS program kicks-off.   

“We are also interested in collecting materials connected to other Product Stewardship Schemes,” he added.   

Since winning the award, the journey has continued for ReCollect, who have gone on to collect 1.5 million containers and launch their first truck in Sydney. 

When asked what the award meant to ReCollect, Mr Minto noted its relevance in supporting the company value to operate to the highest possible standard.  

“We see this award is a recognition of our meeting this high standard, and an acknowledgement of excellence from our peers,” said Mr Minto.  

“The Product Stewardship Excellence awards recognise excellence and action in product stewardship and seek to raise the profile of stewardship in business, Government and NGOs. 

The Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence thanks our awards sponsor Kmart for their support and on-going commitment to product stewardship.” 

Written for the Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence by Rachael Wilkinson, Ai Group.  

 

The Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence is an independent, not for profit charity, that seeks to reduce waste generation and create positive environmental and social outcomes through sustainable design, resource conservation, reuse, repair, and recycling. The Centre helps businesses, industries, and product stewardship organisations to adopt a strong lifecycle approach to deliver their ESG and circular economy objectives. We also provide independent advice on product stewardship priorities to the Australian government.

Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence  |  c/- Institute for Sustainable Futures  |  University of Technology  |  PO Box 123  |  Broadway NSW 2007

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