The Australian
Council of Recyclers (ACOR) is Australia’s peak industry
association representing companies involved in recovering
secondary resources. ACOR’s mission is to maximize resource
recovery and achieve the highest resource order of Australia’s
secondary materials.
Through our members we currently
reprocess more than 12,990,000 tonnes or 86% of recyclable material in
Australian annually and directly employ over 10,900 people in
resource recovery activities
and indirectly employ 27,705.
ACOR’s mission
is to encourage governments, industry and the public to take
actions that advance the optimal use of Australia’s secondary
materials and to facilitate the removal of barriers that hinder
effective recycling and reprocessing.
The organisation was established in 1983 to encourage recycling
and to promote the recycling achievements of industry to the
wider community. In 1992, ACOR reviewed its roles and
objectives and began to focus on being the primary resource to
government and industry on consumer and industrial recycling.
It is of critical importance to our members to have input into
government policy, given the significant investment that members
have made in research and development, infrastructure,
technology and the vital role we play in resource recovery of
secondary resources.
Today, ACOR members bring significant expertise and experience
to public policy formulation and actively liaise with elected
representatives and staff at all levels about environmentally
and economically sustainable consumer and industrial recycling.
Current ACOR
membership spans the following sectors:-
Aluminium
Cardboard
Computers
Construction and demolition material
Electronics
Ferrous and non-ferrous metals
Glass
Paper, newsprint
Plastics – HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE, PET, PVC,
Mercury
Tyres,
Whitegoods
ACOR supports
Alternate Technologies where such technologies incorporate
resource recovery and the separated materials meet the ACOR
materials specifications.
To encourage governments, industry and the
community to take actions that promote resource recovery,
recycling and optimise the profitable recovery and recycling of
secondary materials.
To facilitate the removal of barriers to
economic and sustainable recycling and promote changes to
legislation and government policies where such changes will
benefit members
To encourage uniformity of government policy
nationally in relation to resource recovery and recycling and
promote policies which are non prescriptive in nature and
equitable in outcomes in order to open up opportunities to
effectively reintroduce secondary materials for reuse.
To maximise the opportunity of substituting
recycled materials for virgin raw materials and closing the
recycling loop through members producing a range of quality
recycled raw materials, in accordance with locally and
internationally recognised and developed materials
specifications.
The ACOR organization provides
credibility and profile with access to a unique source of
knowledge and expertise, a forum for discussing issues relevant
to the sector, business to business meetings and a voice to
government and stakeholders through the use of media, lobbying
and direct meetings.
