Inde’s client is one of the major supply chain management groups in the country. Specialising in end-to-end supply chain management, they provide national and international freight, warehousing, and specialist lifting to a range of sectors.
Inde has an ongoing relationship with this client, completing a wide range of IT projects for the organisation. That is why when the team was faced with an e-waste challenge, they reached out for Inde’s support.
With the nature of work the company does it’s an expected consequence that e-waste and waste in general would pile up. Cognisant of the environmental impact that dumping the e-waste would have, the company decided to collect and store it at one of its larger warehouses. This plan worked well, until the sheer volume of waste began to encroach on valuable warehouse space.
Under pressure to regain precious warehouse space while getting rid of the waste in a sustainable way, the team reached out to Inde.
Aware of the brand impact of removing the waste incorrectly, Inde’s specialist licensing and procurement team began researching IT asset disposition (ITAD) partners that could prove credentials in this space, eventually landing on Greenbox, the clean-tech innovator leveraging AI and proprietary analytics to solve the world's e-waste crisis.
Greenbox maintains the largest R2V3-certified (responsible recycling) network in New Zealand and Australia, with 32 separate ISO certifications (16 specific to New Zealand, including Toitū Net Carbon Zero certification), ensuring the highest standards of responsible e-waste management. They are the only carbon-neutral certified IT asset lifecycle services provider in the country (Toitū Envirocare).
As such, they were perfectly primed to help address and process Inde’s client’s e-waste.
Inde worked closely with Greenbox to facilitate the e-waste removal. This involved helping the client to understand the pre-requisites for Greenbox’s process and ensuring they had all the information required to be successful.
Once the waste was organised, Greenbox stepped in to collect the pieces – freeing up valuable warehouse space – and began its process of cleaning, dismantling and further organising the pieces into what could be recycled versus what could be refurbished.
“The process in theory sounds simple, but there is a lot of work that goes into e-waste removal from all parties,” says Matt Burns, South Island Business Lead, Greenbox.
The best form of recycling is reuse, but not everything is able to be given a second life. In those situations, Greenbox recycles the asset down to its component parts. Nothing goes to landfill and everything is reused.
“What separates us in our field, is we’re able to report on everything, so our clients have piece of mind, that their waste is actually doing something good! … and yes, we’re also audited on this as part of our accreditations,” says Matt.
This level of detail allows Greenbox to achieve exceptional results for its clients in the way of CO2 savings, tangible sustainability accreditation via carbon reduction certification and product rebates.
Through active communication and appropriate vendor selection, Inde was able to help their client remove 21 pallets of e-waste (2.5 tonnes) from its warehouse freeing up space and maintaining sustainable practice.
While the process was time-consuming due to the sheer volume, the results speak for themselves:
“The process in theory sounds simple, but there is a lot of work that goes into e-waste removal from all parties,” says Matt Burns, South Island Business Lead, Greenbox.
