Following a recent study, Kitchen Warehouse has launched a nation-first recycling campaign after the research revealed 7,000 pots and pans are being dumped on average each day.
Australians spend an estimated $988 million on cookware each year. The majority of the products purchased have an average lifespan of three years with many consumers buying cheaper pots and pans which are less durable, less sustainable and more likely to end up dumped in the rubbish bin.
To help stop almost 2.5 million pots and pans going straight to landfill, the Aussie cookware retailer installed a 700-metre-high artwork at Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens in partnership with Perth-based creative agency, Berlin.
The ‘High Fryer’ features discarded pots stacked on top of each other, which would stretch as high as 700 metres if all the pots dumped in a single day across Australia were used.
Kitchen Warehouse chief customer officer Simon Lamplough says he loves the concept and hopes it will create much-needed awareness.
“It’s a great visual depiction of a problem most people don’t know exists,” he explains.
“There is very limited awareness of the sheer scale of pots and pans which are going to Australian landfill and by devising this High Fryer 700 metres into the sky, taller than any building in the country, we hope people will sit up and take notice.”
In addition, the retailer has introduced the Great Pan Exchange, encouraging consumers to bring in their old pots and pans to in-store collection points to be recycled rather than dump them in the rubbish bin, sending them to rot in landfill.
Lamplough says that while Aussies are dealing with the cost-of-living crisis, they are also increasingly conscious about the environment, so this exchange program gives them a way to access premium quality and more durable products while being able to dispose of their old cookware in a sustainable way.
“We know price is a big factor which drives consumer choice when buying cookware, but if you need to replace that pot every few years it’s not only costing the customer more, it comes at a cost to the planet. We want to encourage households to bring in their old pots to our stores and in return we’ll reward them with a discount on new, longer lasting cookware from Tefal.”
Indeed, Tefal has teamed up with Kitchen Warehouse to give consumers access to premium products at a lower cost simply by dropping off their old pots and pans.
The Great Pan Exchange will provide collection bins at Kitchen Warehouse stores around the country, with the High Fryer sculpture to be installed at its Artarmon store indefinitely.
