The Australia New Zealand Recycling Platform (ANZRP) aspires to be the best team delivering market leading and innovative e-product circularity solutions. In the context of this vision, when we refer to ‘team’, we mean not only the staff and employees of ANZRP, but also the organisations that we – with our members – partner to deliver and exceed the requirements stipulated under the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme (NTCRS).
One of those partners that supports and enables us to fulfil this vision, is Endeavour Foundation.
Who is Endeavour Foundation and what is their mission?
Endeavour Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that supports people with disability to live their best life. This is underpinned by a belief that all people should be able to achieve their ambitions, enjoy the right to social and economic participation, and be recognised for their contribution to the community.
ANZRP, acting on behalf of its members, engages Endeavour Foundation to provide e-waste processing services. This partnership and the impact it has, reflects the contribution our members make to supporting the community.
What services does Endeavour Foundation provide?
In fulfilling its mission, Endeavour Foundation provides a wide range of services to the community. These include:
- Disability services for home, work, and community settings;
- Community services connecting people to employment, education and training, apprenticeships, and specialist services;
- Assistance with understanding and navigating the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS); and
- Business Solutions – this includes but is not limited to, the provision of recycling solutions, packing solutions, document destruction, and manufacturing of timber products (pallets, crates, stakes and pegs). This includes e-waste recycling solutions, a service provided to ANZRP by Endeavour Foundation.
Endeavour Foundation has a national footprint and currently supports around
21,000 people, including 1,700 in employment.
E-waste recycling solutions at Endeavour Foundation
ANZRP has been working with Endeavour Foundation since 2016. Through this partnership, Endeavour Foundation employees, undertake manual disassembly of the incoming e-waste at each of its three e-waste recycling sites in Queensland being Southport (on the Gold Coast), Redcliffe (north of Brisbane) and Townsville in North Queensland. Endeavour Foundation currently works with one Co-Regulator, being ANZRP.
Here, incoming e-waste, which is largely made up of television and computer equipment, is separated by manual disassembly into materials and components such as plastics, metals, circuit boards as well as having hazardous components removed such as batteries, mercury containing devices and cathode ray tubes. This enables these streams to be safely and effectively recycled.
Endeavour Foundation sees this partnership as value-adding, as the manual disassembly teaches transferable skills to their employees, as well as providing a sense of purpose, and a future employment pathway.
Fast facts about Endeavour Foundation and the ANZRP partnership
- The e-waste recycling business contributes to the employment of ~150 people with disability (not all Full Time Equivalent employees), representing ~10% of the total workforce Endeavour Foundation supports with a disability.
- In 2022/23, Endeavour Foundation processed more than 1 million kilograms on behalf of ANZRP.
- All three e-waste processing sites are certified as compliant with Australian Standard (AS) 5377 and International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) 14001. AS5377 is a standard applied to the management of e-waste activities which aims to ensure there is a uniform approach applied to addressing. ISO 14001 is an international standard for designing and implementing an environmental management system.
- In financial year 2023 a materials recovery rate of 87% was reported, with a result of greater than 90% expected for 2024. Endeavour Foundation’s downstream plastics recycling stream was reviewed and verified, with a recovery rate of 93%.
- The partnership provides three reasonable access service sites for the TechCollect program.
- ANZRP and Endeavour Foundation are collaborating on future opportunities to further strengthen the partnership, and to grow the volume Endeavour Foundation is able to process.
More information about Endeavour Foundation can be found at Endeavour Foundation – Helping People with Disability.