Recycling at Officeworks – Don’t Bin It, Bring It

With electronic waste (e-waste) growing three times faster than other types of waste, the average Australian generates 23kg of it each per year.

There are some products you can’t put in your recycling bin. That’s why we’re giving our customers’ old technology and stationery new life, with our free, easy and secure Officeworks recycling programs.

So, don’t bin it, bring it back to Officeworks!

Find out what items your local Officeworks store accepts for e-waste recycling, printer cartridge recycling, battery recycling, pen recycling and more.

What items can you recycle at Officeworks?

At Officeworks, we’re proud to be providing customers with recycling facilities for a range of materials they use at home or in the office.

• E-waste recycling

  Our Bring it Back program helps our customers with their e-waste recycling. Each year we recycle more than 800 tonnes of e-waste, plastics and consumables.

  
  

  We accept most forms of e-waste, including:

  • Computers and laptops

  • Monitors

  • Keyboards

  • Printers

  • Mice

  • Hard drives

  • Cables and chargers

  • DVDs and CDs

  • Computer power supplies

  • Printed circuit boards

  • Motherboards

  Remember to save and delete any personal data or documents from your devices before you bring them in for recycling.

  Find e-waste recycling near me

  Is your mobile phone, tablet, laptop or smart watch still in good condition? Trade-in your tech for an instant Gift Card.

• Printer cartridges and ink cartridge recycling

  • We offer free ink and toner recycling so you can return your empty ink & toner cartridges to any Officeworks store.

    Since 2005 we have collected and recycled more than 10 million ink and toner cartridges through Planet Ark.

    Find printer and ink cartridge recycling near me

• Mobile phone recycling

  • You can recycle your old mobile phone and any phone accessories, cables or chargers at any Officeworks store.

    If you’re updating to the latest handset, it’s simple to recycle your old one. We’ve partnered with Mobile Muster, Australia’s leading mobile phone recycling program.

    Simply bring your old mobile phone, phone batteries or phone accessories in store and place them in the mobile phone recycling station.

    Remember to save and delete any personal data or documents from your devices before you bring them in for recycling.

    Find mobile phone recycling near me

  Is your mobile phone, tablet, laptop or smart watch still in good condition? Trade-in your tech for an instant Gift Card.

• Battery recycling

  • Officeworks is a proud member of the Battery Stewardship Council and an accredited collection point for batteries.

    You can recycle batteries at any of our Officeworks stores.

    We accept domestic single use or rechargeable batteries in the following sizes:

    • AA, AAA, C, D, 9V

    • Laptop batteries

    • Mobile phone batteries

    *We don’t accept industrial or commercial grade batteries, such as machinery batteries.

    Find battery recycling near me

• Pens and markers recycling

  • Pens are synonymous with Officeworks, but until recently all those empty pens and markers were sent to landfill.

    Not anymore!

    In FY22, we launched pen recycling nationally as part of our Bring IT Back program, enabling our customers to return pens & markers back to our stores.

    Officeworks sends the used writing instruments collected in their stores to TerraCycle. Once the shipments are received, the used writing instruments are separated by material type. The fibres and plastics are recycled into raw formats that manufacturers use to make new products, such as outdoor furniture, watering cans, construction applications and much more!

    We accept the below at our collection points:

    • Pens

    • Felt tip pens

    • Highlighters

    • Markers

    • Mechanical pencils

    • Correction tape

    • Liquid paper

    • Fountain pens and ink cartridges

    Find marker and pen recycling near me

    Pen and Marker recycling for schools

    We’re now making pen and marker recycling easy for schools! Schools can now pick up a pen recycling box from their local store.

    Here’s how your school can get involved.

    1. Talk to your local Officeworks about getting a recycling box for your school.
    2. Set up the recycling box in your school and display our list of recyclable items.
    3. Once your recycling box is full of old pens and markers, return it to your local Officeworks.
    4. Take your recycling box back to your school and start filling it up again!

    For every box returned, your school will be automatically entered into the draw to win an Officeworks gift card. Full terms and conditions here.

    School Resources

    We’ve put together a few fun resources to help schools recycle their pens and markers and engage with students in the process.

    Pen and Marker Recycling Guide

    Recycle Right

    Recycling Activity Sheets

• Data storage recycling

  • We’ve made it easy to recycle your old or unwanted data storage devices such as USBs, hard drives, CDs or DVDs and their cases.

    Remember to save and delete any personal data or documents from yourdevices before you bring them in for recycling.

• Why is recycling important?

  • Recycling is important as it helps to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfill. Landfill sites produce harmful chemicals and greenhouse gasses, and recycling seeks to minimise those by taking certain types of waste and repurposing them.

    When e-waste, batteries and ink cartridges are disposed of, they start to break down and release toxic chemicals like lead, mercury and arsenic into the environment. These chemicals pollute the air and soil and can even end up in local water sources.

    Please help us make bigger things happen for the environment by using our free recycling services for e-waste, batteries, ink cartridges, mobile phones, pens, and markers at your local store.

    Find my nearest Officeworks store

• What products can be recycled at other facilities?

  • We are informed there are current challenges facing the REDcycle program. The REDcycle program is the store drop off service for soft plastics as they are unable to be recycled in curb side recycling and many of our products carry the REDcycle logo.

    REDcycle has had to take the unwanted but necessary step of temporarily holding stock in storage facilities, due to unforeseen challenges experienced by offtake partners leading them to cease their use of REDcycle soft plastics. These storage facilities are now at capacity and collections will cease. REDcycle has not sent this material to landfill and they do not intend to. REDcycle is however recommending that soft plastics are placed in curbside waste bins while a solution is being developed.

    This is a short-term glitch in the system largely related to the pandemic coinciding with unforeseen challenges experienced by reprocessing partners. Strong, positive moves for soft plastics recycling are on the horizon - capital investment is happening and capacity will soon be coming through.

• Removing your personal data

  • Before you recycle or trade in any device this includes; laptops and computers, mobile phones, motherboards and circuit boards, hard drives, USBs, and CDs/DVDs, make sure you remove any personal information.

    If you need support removing any personal information, we recommend going to the manufacturer’s website.

    If your device is damaged and you’re unable to remove your personal data, the data is typically destroyed by our partners as part of their recycling.

    Disclaimer

    You are responsible to ensure that any personal information has been erased from your device prior to drop off.

    Officeworks does not accept any liability for any loss or damage to your data or any failure to remove your personal information.