New management for Endeavour Industries

Sonya White has been appointed General Manager and Mark Fenton-Jones has been appointed Communications and Marketing Consultant.

The management changes come amidst a changing landscape for recycling, not only in Goulburn but across the country as councils grapple with the question of what can and cant be recycled. 

Endeavour Industries Board chairman Geoff Kettle said the focus of the business would remain to increase employment opportunities for disabled people in the Goulburn region.

“I’m excited with both these appointments, which will support the Board’s intention to expand Endeavour’s core business areas,” Mr Kettle said.

“Both are experienced professionals who are committed to expanding employment opportunities.”

Ms White was previously a marketing executive with Essential Employment and Training in Goulburn. She will take over from Margaret Clarke who has headed up the disability enterprise she founded over 30 years ago.

Ms White said her passion was supporting disabled people searching for employment. 

“I have followed Endeavour Industries for many years and I want to continue the great job that Margaret has already done,” Ms White said.

As a former senior editor and journalist, Mr Fenton-Jones said he is looking forward to working with Endeavour’s management team to promote the organisation’s services more widely.

Mr Kettle said it was a period of transition for Endeavour and for recycling in general. They currently hold the contract  with the council as the main recycling centre in town, but it is up for renewal. 

“We are going through a period of change. We want to increase our client base and we are in negotiations for the recycling side of the council’s waste business,” Mr Kettle said. 

“We are the recyclers for Goulburn but that contract is due to expire and we are currently on a six-month extension of our old contract. 

“I am not keen to hurry that up given the state of recycling in NSW, the country and indeed the whole world.”

Mr Kettle said Endeavour Industries needed to work more closely with the council. 

“There is a fair bit of uncertainty and upheaval. A lot of councils are just putting their recycling into the landfill,” he said.

“We need to work with the council to have a mutually beneficial arrangement in regards to what is recyclable.

“If we are paying for the product we need to have a market to get rid of it - we can't just keep it.

“If we can't come to a mutually beneficial arrangement on this then some hard discussions need to be had.”

He cited the example of green glass, for which there is no current market.

“Councils Australia-wide need to have a good hard think about what they are going to do with recycling,” he said. “There has to be some flexibility or else it goes into landfill.”

Meanwhile, a recent council report showed there had been a $50,000 overspend on the Endeavour Contract. 

Mr Kettle said contamination of recycling was an issue that Endeavour had been dealing with. 

“This has always been a big thing,” he said. “When I was on council we ran campaigns such as the ‘Stop It’ campaign to educate residents about recycling. 

“The council has a dedicated waste officer and I think we need to work more closely with them to educate the public more about what is recyclable and what is not, in an attempt to stop more recyclable material from going into landfill.”

In the meantime, we have to maintain the business for those people that we employ - our staff - the disabled people of Goulburn