The operating chain
A machine on a transfer station floor is four days of work away from a household that needs it.
Nothing here is complicated. It is a workshop, a licensed supervisor, a serial number on every unit, and a rule that no machine leaves without a passed safety test.
One workshop, four stages
Intercept, restore, redistribute, reinvest.
- 1
Intercept
Collect appliances from councils, retailers and households before compaction
- 2
Restore
Triage, repair and electrically safety-test to AS/NZS 3760 under trade supervision
- 3
Redistribute
Sell or lease at tiered, transparent prices with a real warranty
- 4
Reinvest
Commercial margin funds concession pricing and paid trainee wages
Inside the workshop
What actually happens to a unit.
Each stage produces a record. That record is what the warranty rests on, what the diversion tonnage is calculated from, and what a trainee's logged hours are counted against.
Collection and logistics
Units are collected from council recovery bays, retailer trade-in streams, property managers and households, before they reach compaction. Every pickup carries a chain-of-custody record.
Diagnostic triage
Each unit is assessed and marked repairable or parts-only. The decision is recorded against the serial, which is what makes the repair conversion rate a real number rather than an estimate.
Mechanical repair
Motor and pump replacement, seal and bearing work, cleaning and reassembly — carried out by trainees under licensed trade supervision. Parts come from purchased stock or harvested from write-offs.
Electrical safety testing
100% of units are electrically tested and tagged to AS/NZS 3760. Earth continuity, insulation resistance, leakage current, polarity and visual inspection are all recorded against the unit.
Quality control and sign-off
A named licensed supervisor signs off every unit before it is released for sale. No sign-off, no sale — the system will not let a unit be listed without one.
Salvage and recovery
Units that cannot be saved are stripped. Steel, copper and aluminium go to recyclers, tested spare parts go back into the bench, and what is left is weighed and reported honestly.
Theory of change
Why the same unit of work produces three results at once.
we intercept repairable appliances from the municipal waste stream and use them as the training medium for community jobseekers working under licensed trade supervision,
we produce safety-certified, affordable appliances for households priced out of the market, and paid trade experience for people locked out of the labour market,
the same unit of work — diagnosing and repairing a machine — simultaneously creates a saleable asset, a diverted tonne of waste, and a skill that transfers to the electrical and appliance trades.
Program logic
Inputs through to systemic impact.
- Inputs
- Collected and donated appliances · industrial workshop with adequate power and access · licensed electrical supervisor · test-and-tag and diagnostic equipment · delivery vehicle · seed capital · RTO / TAFE partnership · referral agreements with housing and community services.
- Activities
- Collection and logistics · diagnostic triage · mechanical repair · parts harvesting from write-offs · electrical safety testing and tagging · quality control and warranty registration · supervised vocational training · sales, delivery and installation.
- Outputs
- Tonnes of appliances intercepted · units refurbished and released · units sold at concession pricing · households supplied · training hours delivered · certifications completed · kilograms of scrap recovered.
- Short-term outcomes
- Reduced upfront and ongoing cost pressure for concession households · immediate landfill diversion · trainees gain workshop safety competence and first supervised trade hours · housing providers fill tenancies faster.
- Long-term outcomes
- Trainees complete accredited qualifications and hold paid employment at 12 months · households retain functioning appliances beyond the warranty period · sustained annual diversion volume · reduced reliance on rent-to-own products in the referral network.
- Systemic impact
- Laundry insecurity removed as a standard feature of social housing turnover · a documented, repeatable circular-economy model that other regions can adopt · local repair capability rebuilt as an employment sector.
Requirements for selling second-hand electrical appliances — testing standards, tagging, record-keeping, licensing, and the treatment of rental or deferred-payment offers — vary by state and territory and change over time. The applicable obligations for the operating jurisdiction must be confirmed with the relevant electrical safety regulator, consumer affairs body and a qualified lawyer before the first unit is sold. This site identifies risk areas; it is not legal advice and is not a compliance opinion.
Get involved
If you manage a waste stream, we would rather triage it than watch it be compacted.
A designated whitegoods recovery bay and permission to assess units before compaction costs a council less than disposing of them. For retailers, routing trade-in collection to us lowers waste handling cost and produces a customer-facing responsible-disposal offer.