RESOURCE
RESCUE
Update – 26th January 2016
Resource Rescue is a social enterprise being established by Envision NZ on behalf of
the Entrust Foundation. The initiative processes appliances recovered from
Auckland’s new inorganic collection in order to:
•
Maximise the reuse of items in line with the waste hierarchy. Recycling is
seen as a last resort rather than the first option.
•
Create jobs and employment pathways for workers
•
Return an income to The Entrust Foundation
The operation has been provided with seed funding from the Maungakiekie-Tamaki
Local Board to allow it to get established and is currently in a trial period while the
inorganic collection is suspended for the summer holidays.
This update is written with 2.5 weeks to go in a nine week trial.
Operation
Resource Rescue has evolved into having two main revenue streams; reuse and
parts. Each department has a separate Trade Me account so that buyers of parts,
(mostly appliance dealers), are not spooked about the ‘best’ parts being retained
for our own repairs. It also avoids any resentment that may occur if they see us
competition in the sale of repaired appliances.
Reuse - We apply this title to items that are able to be sold for reuse as originally
intended by the manufacturers. Following the return of a number of appliances we
have instituted two policies to improve our quality control:
1. We are focusing on just a few models in each category (washers, dryers,
etc) in order to build up expertise on common faults and how to avoid
these.
2. Machines are tested to ‘real world’ conditions. For example we now have
bath towels that get washed and dried repeatedly and are probably the
cleanest towels in Auckland! Likewise, fridges are left running for 48hrs to
show up any problems and microwaves stay plugged in all day with 15min
tests periodically.
Items sold for reuse are advertised under the user name ‘ResourceRescueNZ’ on
Trade Me.
Parts – For machines that are un-economic to repair, or fall outside of the specialist
knowledge we’re building up, we have instituted a parts retail service. There is
demand for parts that are no longer supplied by manufacturers and as such a
‘dead’ F&P washing machine can be harvested for up to 10 specific parts including;
the lid, module, control panel, stabilisers, pump, etc. These parts are cleaned and
shrink wrapped using plastic film discarded from a manufacturing process and
otherwise destined for landfill. They are labelled and put on Trade Me under the
user name ‘ThePalace’.
Staff
Shatna Roberts – Shatna was the first person employed to work with Resource
Rescue and achieved her ‘tag and test’ certification following a one day course.
She has now secured a permanent position lecturing on Zero Waste at Te Wananga
O Aotearoa and therefore is less available for work with Resource Rescue however
remains very supportive of the enterprise.
James Wilson – James is focused on the reuse side of the operation. James is an
experienced electronics repairer and came familiar with repairing some appliances.
His registration with the Electrical Workers Registration Board is pending and due
through any day. James lives in Ranui with his wife and 2yr old son. He is
passionate about reuse and reducing waste, leaving more secure traditional
electrical work to apply his skills to Resource Rescue. During the trial James has
been working 30hrs / week on average.
Stuart McKie – Stuart is focused on the parts side of the operation. Stuart has over
12 years experience in the retail of appliance parts. He set up and ran Mana
Recycling’s very successful parts operation at Trash Palace in Porirua. Stuart was
originally flown up from Porirua as a consultant to give us some ideas on how we
might establish a parts operation. However, he became so enthused with what we
are trying to do that he has agreed to complete a four month short term contract
commencing Monday 15th February. Stuart has donated a significant amount of
tools, equipment and IP to the operation. He will spend 4 – 5 days in Auckland
every second week for the duration of his contract. When back in Porirua he will
continue to work on Resource Rescue remotely taking care of Trade Me listings.
Future staffing - I am very aware of the fact that Resource Rescue was provided
seed funding by the Maungakiekie-Tamaki Local Board, without which it would have
been very difficult to get the operation established. I’m also aware that with
Shatna leaving we now have no one employed from the local board area, and in
fact have employed someone from Porirua!
As the team grows I intend for James to become the overall site supervisor and
continue to grow the reuse side of the business. Stuart will be our parts expert for
the next four months with James helping out in Stuart’s absence as needed.
Between them I believe we have a fantastic team for growing the operation and
employing more locals as a result.
With collections resuming on 15th February we are looking to employ for two parttime positions and expect that these will be filled by Maungakiekie-Tamaki locals.
The first is for cleaning and preparing parts and appliances for sale, and
dispatching parts. The second is for taking care of all Trade Me listings and
subsequent communications with customers. I have had suggestions as to suitable
people through Karen Clifford from Tamaki WRAP and will be conducting interviews
shortly.
Market
The market seems strong for both reuse and parts. Fridges and dryers in particular
have surprised us with how quickly they sell and their value. Dryers are simple to
test and repair whereas we are unable to use many of the fridges (possibly 10% of
what we receive) for reuse. The fridges that we do list sell very quickly.
Stock
The ‘soft launch’ of the inorganic collection ran in three out of seven areas over
nine weeks in November and December 2015. Our stock to date has come from
material stockpiled from that soft launch in two shipping containers and within the
warehouse.
We have now run out of material and have three weeks to go until the collection
resumes across all seven areas on 15th February. As a result I have arranged for
James to work on behalf of MPHS at Auckland Council’s Waitakere Refuse and
Recycling Centre on The Concourse in West Auckland in the intervening time. We
expect James will alternate days between Penrose and Waitakere.
The arrangement is that we are able to retain any parts recovered, and where
possible provide repaired, tested and cleaned machines for MPHS to sell in the
onsite reuse store.
Location
Following meetings with Waste Management, they have agreed that we are able to
stay onsite at 10 Southdown Lane, Penrose on a month-by-month basis. As a result
we have retained one shipping container onsite to use for storage of parts and will
set up some more suitable workstations within our space in the warehouse. We are
also in the process of setting up a courier collection system.
Key Learnings
•
Machines need to be tested under ‘real world’ conditions in order to test
functionality
•
Sticking with just a few models and brands enables us to become skilled on
repairing those appliances and reduce returns
Thank you for your support and encouragement of this new social enterprise.
Please feel free to contact me with any ideas or suggestions you may have.
Kind regards,
Matthew Luxon
Director
Envision NZ
matthew@envision-nz.com
027 222 0660