Landcom Office Waste Diversion - Iniatives & Progress

In NSW, 35% of annual waste goes to landfills, costing businesses and households over $750 million in waste levies and contributing to 3% of total NSW emissions^1,2. The release of methane from waste worsens the warming climate. However, through recycling and waste reduction we can reduce or mitigate these environmental and financial burdens.

Landcom is dedicated to reducing waste in our communities, and our offices. We recognise our critical role in contributing to the decarbonisation efforts needed to combat climate change.

In FY23, Landcom partnered with Green Furniture Hub (GFH) to remove 4.64 tonnes of surplus office furniture, achieving a resource recovery rate of 64%.

GFH’s comprehensive approach includes donation, rehoming, recycling, and resale. This enabled Landcom to manage leftover furniture sustainably. By embracing a circular economy approach we minimise environmental impact and pave the way for a more sustainable future.

We also focused on improving recycling rates in the office through education and improved signage. Key actions included raising awareness about “wish-cycling” (putting uncertain items in the recycling bin), emphasising the need to clean recyclables, using designated coffee cup poles for recycling, following bin signage and encouraging the use of personal cups, containers, and bags. These educational efforts resulted in an improvement of approximately 10% in the recycling rate over a three month period.

Lastly, Landcom also partnered with Keep Australia Beautiful in FY23 to deliver waste education programs in schools in our communities. While a total of fifty-one students participated in the EnviroMentors educational workshops around waste education, twenty-six of those students also participated in a waste audit which showed that food scraps and soft plastics were the most common materials found in the bins. Keep Australia Beautiful then provided a landfill diversion guide to students and teachers with suggestions on how to divert waste from landfill.

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^{1 Circular Australia.
2 NSW Greenhouse Gas Emissions.}