Fit for Office Furniture Stewardship Webinar
In mid-2021, the GlobalPSC, Edge Environment and Good Environmental Choice Australia began the design and development of a national stewardship approach for Australia to address and divert commercial furniture from landfill.
Supported by the building industry, commercial furniture manufacturers and importers and underpinned by a grant from the National Product Stewardship Investment Fund managed by the Australian Government, the project consortium is researching and designing options for a stewardship scheme that supports landfill diversion, reuse and repair, design considerations, enhanced recycling methodologies and improved social outcomes to drive responsible management of commercial furniture in Australia.
In late July, consortium partners held a webinar to outline the project and issues involved, including an introduction to stewardship broadly and within Australia specifically by GlobalPSC Vice President John Polhill. The webinar recording is now available below.
Announcing the project funding, Assistant Minister for Waste Reduction and Environmental Management the Hon Trevor Evans MP said, “The Australian Government have recently provided more than $370,000 to Edge Environment and its partners to develop, in consultation with industry, a commercial furniture product stewardship scheme. When it comes to commercial furniture, we’re talking about a large amount of both textile and plastic waste across the lifecycle of these products from storage and delivery through to the actual components in the furniture. We’re excited to get behind this new scheme which focuses on waste streams that are priorities for our government.”
Over the next 2 years, the project consortium will be providing regular updates to all interested stakeholders over the term of the project. Keep up to date on the development of the commercial furniture stewardship scheme and other stewardship initiatives by contacting the GlobalPSC.
