Supporting the Environment

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Australia Post does much more than deliver the mail.

With almost 4,500 postal outlets, Australia Post is Australia's largest retailer and financial services provider, and is committed to protecting the environment in the course of providing these services.

Australia Post has put in place an Environment Management System, which focuses on the environmental impacts of everyday operations. Post is also a signatory to the Federal Government's Greenhouse Challenge program, National Packaging Covenant and Buy Recycled Alliance.

As a result, the corporation is reducing its greenhouse gas emissions and carefully evaluating the impacts of its activities on the environment and the community. Find out more about Australia Post's commitment to the environment.

Planet Ark - Festive Recycling

Australia Post and Planet Ark have teamed up on a new recycling campaign that will take the place of the 'Cards 4 Planet Ark' greeting card recycling program.

The Cards campaign was a great success in raising awareness of the importance of recycling greeting cards, however due to the widespread availability of kerbside paper recycling it was time to move on to other issues.

The new Festive Recycling campaign aims to address more general recycling issues including electronic waste and contamination of recycling materials.

To support the campaign Australia Post has produced a free limited edition recycling bin sticker, which gives information on recycling throughout the year. The sticker is available from participating Australia Post outlets after Boxing Day until the end of January.

For more information, visit www.festiverecycling.planetark.org

MobileMuster

MobileMuster is the official national recycling program of the mobile phone industry in Australia. Australia Post has teamed with MobileMuster to be the first business in Australia to provide free Reply Paid mobile phone recycling satchels through its outlets.

Customers simply collect a satchel from their local Australia Post outlet, place the battery in one section of the satchel and the phone and accessories in the other section of the satchel and post it in any street posting box. This simple process will assist in decreasing the volume of mobile phones and accessories going to landfill.

View the MobileMuster ad

Landcare

Australia Post has been a proud supporter of Landcare since 2003 through the Community Development and Junior Landcare biodiversity grants. In 2009 Australia Post will be moving from these grants to a larger national program. As a result these grants are no longer available.

Australia Post/Landcare Community Development Grants

Previous winners:

2006

Round one winners (pdf)

Round two winners (pdf)

2007

Round one winners (pdf)

Round two winners (pdf)

2008

Round one winners (pdf)

Round two winners (pdf)

Junior Landcare Grants Program

Previous winners:

2006

Round one winners (pdf)

Round two winners (pdf)

Round three winners (pdf)

Round four winners (pdf)

2007

Round one winners (pdf)

Round two winners (pdf)

Round three winners (pdf)

Round four winners (pdf)

2008

Round one winners (pdf)

Round two winners (pdf)

Round three winners (pdf)

Round four winners (pdf)

For more information, visit Landcare Australia.

Cartridges 4 Planet Ark

Australia Post support's the 'Cartridges 4 Planet Ark' program, which has been set up to stop Australia's printer cartridges ending up in landfill, where they can pollute our groundwater and soil.

Australia Post is encouraging people to drop off their used inkjet and laser toner cartridges from the home or office into special collection boxes at over 1700 participating Australia Post outlets. This program accepts and processes every type of imaging consumable used in printers, photocopiers and fax machines.

Almost 60% of laser toner cartridges collected are sent back to the original equipment manufacturers for their own remanufacturing or component recovery programs. The remaining cartridges are recycled by Close the Loop®, an Australian hi-tech facility with zero waste going to landfill.

The component materials recovered include aluminium, steel, plastic, toner, ink and foam for reuse and recycling.

This process has the potential to save over 5,000 tonnes of material currently polluting the environment from the 18 million laser and ink cartridges thrown away annually. To participate, customers can leave their used cartridges in specially marked collection boxes at over 1,700 Australia Post outlets and 120 Harvey Norman stores. A full list of collection outlets are listed at www.RecyclingNearYou.com.au

Australia Post is a proud participant in ‘Cartridges 4 Planet Ark’ - closing the loop between retail and recycling. Customers have broad access to recycle their cartridges and make a positive contribution to the environment. Find out what happens to the cartridges.

For further information call the ‘Cartridges 4 Planet Ark’ hotline 1800 24 24 73 or go to www.planetark.com/cartridges

See examples of how organisations are reducing, reusing, recycling and rethinking through environmental programs in Action Town.