Content about equipment recycling

Laurence Fisher from Donations In Kind warehouse.

Donations in Kind (DIK) is a program supported by Rotary Clubs in Australia which grew out of the compassion and concern of returning overseas volunteers. This recycling and reuse program involves the collection, sorting, packing, dispatch and distribution of donated items to countries in need of these goods.

Many goods and products, for which organisations in Australia have no further use, are valuable commodities in needy countries.
While 50 computers with non-flat screen monitors and less than 1 gigabyte of memory may be obsolete for some corporate offices, they might instead be of significant value in helping the education of underpriveleged students in East Timorese universities or in assisting with the accountancy of microfinance finance projects in Africa.

Laurie Fisher spoke to the Club on 19th January, about Donations In Kind Warehouse, the wonderful District 9800 recycling operation, run by volunteers, that receives clothing, medical equipment and supplies, school furniture and books, computers, bicycles and more to be shipped to a range of Rotary projects worldwide.

Clubs contribute funds towards rent and shipping but over the years, $16 worth of good has been shipped for every $1 spent on freight. Over the last 14 years 410 containers have been shipped, reusing approximately 23,800m3 of things that may have ended up in landfill, sending around $38,000,000 worth of goods, with volunteer labour saving $3,500,000 (allocated as Overseas Aid)!

For more information about Donations In Kind, how you can source goods or access goods for a worthwhile project, visit the DIK website.