Retailer says ‘don’t bring it back’.

 

Officeworks will longer accept household batteries for recycling from this month, citing an increase in alternative drop-off locations.

 

Since the launch of its ‘Bring it Back’ program, the retailer has collected more than 9000 tonnes of products and is one of the first accredited retailers of B-Cycle, Australia’s government-authorised battery stewardship scheme, which began in 2022. 

 

With the end of everyday battery collection in-store, the company will focus on other streams that are currently not easily recycled including household products and stationery. 

 

Officeworks will trial the launch of ‘People and Planet’ recycling pop-up days through its store network in the coming months where battery recycling options will be available. 

 

Customers can continue to use the ‘Bring it Back’ program to recycle pens and markers, ink and toner cartridges, laptops, computers, tablets and technology accessories. 

 

Online trade-in options will remain, with Officeworks gift cards offered for high-value tech products. 

 

Officeworks’s head of ESG and corporate affairs, Fiona Lawrie, said: “When Officeworks first launched ‘Bring it Back’, we were one of the first to the market with battery recycling, and one of very few locations across the country where

 

Australians could easily recycle their household batteries. 

 

“Today, there are more than 5000 convenient drop off points across the country that Australians can use to recycle batteries thanks to B-Cycle,” she said.

 

“Household battery collection has been a small part of our much larger ‘Bring it Back’ program and with so many additional collection points now available, we’re shifting our focus to other more complex recycling challenges,” Lawrie added.