Recycling Near You celebrates 15 years of helping Australians recycle right

• recycling
• product stewardship

By Rachael Ridley 10 August 2021

Planet Ark’s one-stop shop for accurate recycling information has helped millions of Australians recycle right at home, work, and school.

Recycling Near You is Australia’s first and most comprehensive database of recycling and reuse information for households, helping almost 1.8 million users find reuse and recycling information each year. 

Originally started in 2006 with a grant from the Australian Government, the website contained waste and recycling information for all Australian councils by the end of that year. By 2010, the platform had also added non-council recycling options such as product stewardship schemes and other organisations.

In the last ten years the platform has grown fourfold, increasing from 400,000 users and 1.2 million pageviews in 2010-11 to 1.8 million users and 4.1 million pageviews in 2020-21.

Planet Ark CEO, Paul Klymenko, said the team was proud to have helped millions of Australians find reuse and recycling solutions for items that would have otherwise gone to landfill.

“Improvements such as merging the commercial recycling search function for businesses and mobile optimisation have created the recycling hub for everyone, whether an individual or business,” said Mr Klymenko.

Over half of the people using Recycling Near You do so on their mobile phone. In addition, more users are finding the right recycling options for their business with a 657% increase in referrals to Business Recycling since the website revamp.

With the number of searches being carried out via the platform now numbering in the millions each year, the platform provides a snapshot of the recycling information Australians are seeking most often. In the last 12 months, clothing/textiles and e-products have been the most frequently searched items by those seeking reuse or recycling options.

Top 10 Items Searched (pageviews)

1. Clothing/textiles (238,408)

2. Polystyrene (96,024)

3. Computers (170,630)

4. Electrical appliances (86,459)

5. Whitegoods (114,876)

6. Mattresses (88,178)

7. Batteries (111,699)

8. X-rays (78,467)

9. Paper-cardboard (103,910)

10. Printer cartridges (76,360)

The platform also hosts information on product stewardship schemes for products ranging from computers and printer cartridges to mobile phones and paint. Over 200,000 Australians looked for recycling options for computers and televisions in the last year alone.

Top 5 Product Stewardship Searches

1. Computers (170,630)

2. Batteries (111,699)

3. Printer cartridges (76,360)

4. Televisions (53,826)

5. Mobile phones (51,411) 

Recycling Near You is updated regularly by the Planet Ark Information Centre team to ensure the accuracy of council recycling information. The program is made possible with thanks to sponsors Gumtree Australia, MobileMuster, Nespresso, Officeworks, Paintback and Tetra Pak.