Social Enterprise by Name, but Not the Same

With the growing number of Technology Recycling Social Enterprises popping up, we're answering our most asked questions on what makes Enable different.

Enable provides both paid work and employability skills to participants who experience barriers to getting a job

We’ve done a comparison and the results may shock you, serving as a caution that whilst “Social Enterprise” sounds the same by name, you may be surprised how different they can be by way of who is actually benefiting financially and by how much from your donated equipment.

Here are four questions to ask Social Enterprises to help ensure proceeds from your donated equipment are ending up where you want or expect them to:

1. Is the Social Enterprise a registered Australian Charity or not-for-profit? You may expect all Social Enterprises are registered charities. Not the case. To be sure that your donated equipment is going to a charity, you can check at https://www.acnc.gov.au/charity

2. If not, then ask the Social Enterprise what percentage of the technology's total value is the for-profit business owners paying themselves or keeping for themselves?

3. Does the Social Enterprise perform the commercial recycling services they are marketing to you or are the services 100% outsourced to a third party?

4. If not performing the recycling themselves, then ask if the outsourced e-waste business is also a for-profit business? If so, sadly this means even more of your donated equipment’s total value may be funnelled into the hands of for-profit business owners. At this point, you might consider asking part of Question 2 again to uncover the total percentage of the equipment value that actually ended up in the hands of for-profit business owners.

Enable is a trusted Social Enterprise, Australian registered Charity, and a not-for-profit and an accredited E-Waste Recycler. This means, your tech is ethically recycled directly by Enable and our Community Partners and 100% of profit from your donated equipment is retained in the charity to deliver hands-on Employability skills to some of Melbourne's most disadvantaged communities.

To find out more:

Visit the Enable IT Recycling webpage like the Enable Facebook page

Contact Julie McKay, Managing Director on 0402 141 947

Enable IT Recycling, 60 Belfast Street, Broadmeadows.