Brother New Zealand has today launched a groundbreaking recycling initiative in the printing industry. Following a successful pilot programme, Brother has announced its Printer Pick Up service will be rolled out across New Zealand for all customers.
Printer Pick Up is a market-leading product stewardship model, where customers can arrange to have their old printer, regardless of the brand, and new Brother printer packaging collected and taken to be recycled.
“This is about removing the barriers for consumers to recycle their printers and packaging, and Brother taking responsibility for where our products end up,” says Brother Managing Director Warwick Beban. “We believe this initiative can significantly reduce how much of it needlessly goes to landfill.”
When customers purchase a new Brother printer, they can request to have their old printer and new printer packaging collected and couriered to leading e-waste recycler The Recycling Group (formerly Croxley Recycling). Those that exceed couriers’ 25kg weight limits can instead be taken to one of Brother’s many nationwide drop-off points.
“It is estimated that nearly a third of New Zealand’s annual waste that goes to landfill is made of readily recyclable materials with high recycling value,” Beban says. “It’s one thing to make recyclable products, but this helps us to close the loop and actually recycle them as they’re intended to be.”
The Printer Pick Up service was trialled in partnership with The Warehouse Group at five Warehouse Stationery stores last year. In January, this expanded to all Auckland Warehouse Stationery stores due to its popularity.
Customers who purchased a new Brother printer from participating stores were able to trial the initiative and provide feedback.
“We know Kiwis are passionate about recycling but many people find it challenging when it comes to items like printers,” says The Warehouse Group Sustainability Manager Yi You.
"We were pleased to support Brother to trial the Printer Pick Up scheme to make it easy for our customers. This expansion is great news for New Zealand and we are proud to have been involved in this opportunity to create change in the industry.”
Brother’s Printer Pick Up scheme will be available across New Zealand from today.
How it works
• Customers that buy a new Brother printer qualify for Printer Pick Up.
• Using an online form, they can request pick up of their old printer and/or packaging from their new printer via brother.co.nz/printerpickup.
• Request information is sent to certified recycling partner, Recycling Group.
• Recycling Group emails customer with courier booking details, including courier ticket to be printed and attached to items to be collected.
• Courier collects items for recycling and delivers to Recycling Group.