Championing the Circular Economy for a Sustainable Environment and an Equitable Society
Strategic Plan FY 2026
Impact Measurement
Strategic Action Items
All of our activities are led by data. We measure the social, environmental and economic benefits of the charitable second-hand economy and our members’ contributions to it in order to build a clear business case for ongoing governmental and community support.
- Socialise the datasets from the NSW/TAS/SA Reuse Studies with a National Reuse Impact Projection to articulate the power of reuse and inform our key messaging.
- Socialise the Reuse Impact Calculators to encourage and measure reuse initiatives.
- Collaborate with the Federal Government integrate reuse data to inform the National Waste Policy Action Plan and the Circular Economy Framework.
- Expand the Charitable Retail Benchmarking Tool to more members, improve data quality and consistency and expand metrics as required to elevate and deliver retail best practice.
Advocacy
Strategic Action Items
We encourage all levels of government to promote reuse and reduce charitable costs in order to improve circular economy outcomes for our members which, ultimately, increases their social and environmental impact.
Reuse Policy Development
- Work across all jurisdictions to influence all levels of government to formally integrate reuse and higher order interventions within their policy frameworks.
- Expand the Clothing Reuse Export Accreditation Scheme for Foreign End Market Verification through overseas site audits, and an enhanced Modern Slavery element.
- NSW – Support the NSW EPA to deliver the NSW Reuse and Repair Strategy.
- Western Australia – Support DWER to advance the outputs and target interventions of the 2025 Reuse Codesign Workshop into policy.
- Queensland – Advocate for change to the recycling-only focus of the new government, in order to encourage reuse and higher order interventions into their Waste Strategy 2030.
- South Australia – Advocate to GISA/EPA to develop a reuse policy following the 2025 Reuse Workshop.
- Tasmania – Support the Waste and Resource Recovery Board/NRE to leverage the findings of the 2025 Reuse Impact Study through a Codesign Workshop to influence policy.
- Victoria – Continue advocating to SV/DEECA to accelerate reuse in Victoria despite their public budget challenges.
- Federal – Develop the annual Federal Pre-Budget Submission to expand our asks around:
- Positively incentivising donations
- National reuse impact studies
- Support for donation quality
- Support for volunteer engagement
- Tax incentives for corporate donations
- Rent relief for charitable retail operations
Partnerships
- Expand the Seamless partnership to accelerate clothing reuse opportunities in Australia.
- Develop a partnership with WRAP to accelerate investment in reuse and repair in Australia.
- Partner with the Pro-Thrift Movement to accelerate the shift in consumer behaviour towards pre-loved fashion and homewares.
State Government Waste Levy Protection
- Ensure 100% protection for members against all state waste levies, whether through exemption models, rebate schemes or hybrid systems.
- South Australia – Continue advocating with the Deputy Premier, GISA and EPA to increase the waste levy protection from 75% to 100% and then fund additional reuse incentives.
- New South Wales – Advocate to NSW EPA to rectify the gap in the Weight Based Billing at transfer stations for members to access 100% of the NSW Community Service Exemption.
- Tasmania – Secure ongoing extensions to the existing 100% rebate.
- Queensland – Secure ongoing extensions to the existing 100% exemption/rebate program.
- Western Australia – Secure ongoing annual extensions to existing 100% rebate program.
Capacity Building
Strategic Action Items
We help our members do what they do, better, by providing resources, tools and advice on becoming more innovative and progressive reusers and retailers. This, in turn, empowers them to become key drivers and accelerators of the circular economy.
Membership Development
- Support members through challenging market conditions with services on building resilience and organisational choices, and key messaging to uplift shoppers, donors and volunteers.
- Achieve a 90% retention rate for members into FY 2026.
- Implement a 5% CPI rate increase across corporate partnerships and supporters.
- Create a wholistic marketing plan to underpin our member development, engagement and member support initiatives.
- Accelerate new partner outreach through LinkedIn on key operational areas for members.
- Focus new member acquisition on smaller op shops and reuse enterprises, addressing their needs for growth and capacity building to build our membership.
- Acquire 12 new corporate partners.
- Acquire 6 new members.
- Acquire 6 new conference exhibitors.
Member and Partner Engagement
- Develop opportunities to better communicate baseline best practice among members:
- Support them to disseminate key information and insights to their frontline teams.
- Enable them to share how they are dealing with key challenges.
- Identify and create relevant small forums for effective information sharing
- Research to better understand member needs across operational areas, including in-depth interviews with key individuals to understand their strategies across business areas:
- Donation quality and quantity
- Volunteer Engagement Strategies
- E-Commerce Success or Learnings
- Dumping Management
- Best Practice Sharing Internally
- Launch a Member & Partner Engagement Tracker to monitor engagement across key services and opportunities for members and partners to benefit from our resources.
- Expand the website to better communicate our key messaging, including a new section for the media to gain fuller information on the purpose, role and impact of the sector.
Funding Channels
- Investigate other potential funding channels – grants, philanthropic and tax year donations from corporates and/or sustainably focused individuals.
- Scope out opportunities to expand our footprint and services in New Zealand with potential new revenue channels from membership and government programs.
- Scope out opportunities for impactful and income generating partner-sponsored events.
- Scope out the potential to add a significant exhibition to the conference.
Education
Strategic Action Items
We educate and inspire Australians to choose reuse as a simple, cost effective way by which they can purchase quality items while also reducing their environmental footprint and enabling social good in their community.
- Launch a Marketing Sub Committee featuring the key decision makers at member enterprises to develop and refine our key messaging and social media.
- Focus our key messaging/education to cover all areas to address market misconceptions and accelerate shopper, donor and volunteer engagement with members:
- The Impact of Charitable Reuse, World Op Shop Day, 100 Years of Op Shops, the Purpose of Op Shops, Export Market Benefits, Value Pricing, Responsible Donating, the Benefits of Volunteering, the Rising Costs of Doing Business and Increase Consumer Understanding of Op Shops and Reuse Enterprises.
- Proactively engage the media to socialise the new National Reuse Impact datasets for media exposure to educate consumers on op shop pricing, purpose and impact – and bust myths.
- Target further expansion in our Social Media Metric Targets:
- Followers – Increase from 3,110 to 4,550 by 30 June 2026, representing 36% growth at 95 new followers per month.
- Engagement – An average engagement rate of 3–5% per post on each platform.
- Content Output – Publish three posts per week: One impact-driven, one educational and one engagement-focused.
- Create a new ‘Reuse’ logo to represent and accelerate the charitable reuse sector and mark a clear distinction over and above consumer awareness of the generic recycling logo.
- Create a high-end Pop-Up Shop and PR event to highlight and challenge the differences in consumer expectations on price and quality between charity and commercial enterprises.
- Launch a new Pod Cast series interviewing members on ‘What Needs to Change’ and corporate partners on ‘How We Can help’ to build engagement, advocacy and support.
- Expand monthly e-newsletter reach through the website and LinkedIn.
- Inspire more Australian communities to shop, donate and volunteer.
- Scope out opportunities to target the next generation and engage schools to educate children on reuse.