CameraRecycle Australia signs on 71 stores

More than 70 photo retailers have signed up to CameraRecycle Australia, the voluntary eco-friendly recycling program for old, unwanted and broken cameras and accessories.

The brain-child of Nittram Photographic Services’ managing director Tim Gledhill, CameraRecycle encourages customers to drop off old, broken and unwanted cameras at specially-marked recycling boxes at participating stores.

Gledhill told PIN Online that many store owners signed on at the launch of CameraRecycle at this year’s PMA Digital Imaging Expo in Melbourne.

"Most stores are the smaller independents and we’ve got them in most states, although the Queensland numbers are relatively low," he said.

Gledhill said he has also received a lot of interest from councils, many of which contacted him following publicity given to the project via a Victorian government website.

"The councils seem keen to promote the Camera Recycling through local shopping centres," he said.

"They also wanted to know if it cost anything to participate."

Nittram Photographic Services funds the project and, according to Gledhill, he has invested between $25,000 and $30,000 in the project to date, not including postage and freight costs.