As part of the inaugural COFOSS Conference, more than 60 senior leaders from across Australia’s consumer electronics and home appliance industry participated in a collaborative workshop facilitated by Leyla Acaroglu focused on one central question:

How can the industry support increased repair, collection and recycling of electronics and appliances to reduce e-waste in Australia?

The workshop brought together retailers, manufacturers, sustainability practitioners and operational leaders in mixed-sector working groups to explore the systemic barriers driving unnecessary product disposal and identify practical opportunities for collective action.

Participants were divided into groups focused on either small appliances or large appliances, exploring themes including:

• causes of e-waste,
• prevention opportunities,
• reduction strategies,
• and circular business opportunities.

A strong theme emerging across both categories was that many of the barriers to circularity are systemic rather than isolated to individual organisations.

For small appliances, discussions focused heavily on the challenges of operating in a low-cost, high-volume environment where repair is often viewed as commercially unviable. Participants identified consumer expectations, rapid innovation cycles, limited repair infrastructure and current regulatory settings as key contributors to a “replace rather than repair” culture.

For large appliances, participants highlighted the operational complexity of servicing, transporting and repairing bulky products across Australia’s geographic footprint, with labour shortages, logistics costs and fragmented systems emerging as major barriers.

Despite these challenges, the workshop generated strong alignment around several opportunities for industry action, including:

• expanding repair networks and repair capability,
• improving consumer education and repair awareness,
• developing shared collection and reverse logistics systems,
• increasing refurbishment and resale pathways,
• and creating more nationally aligned approaches to stewardship and regulation.

Participants also identified growing opportunities for circular business innovation, including repair-as-a-service models, trade-in programs, digital troubleshooting tools and collaborative stewardship infrastructure.

One of the clearest outcomes from the workshop was recognition that no single organisation can solve Australia’s e-waste challenge alone.

Across the discussions there was strong support for:

• greater collaboration between retailers and manufacturers,
• practical engagement with government,
• nationally harmonised approaches,
• and policies that better support repair, reuse and circularity outcomes.

The workshop outputs are expected to help inform future COFOSS discussion papers, policy engagement and collaborative industry initiatives focused on accelerating practical sustainability outcomes across the consumer electronics and home appliance sector.