By: Duane Pretorius, Environmental Manager – Sedgwick Australia

Incident summary

Rainwater entered the insured’s store and caused water damage to the older (used) stock. The damage stock items included tablets, charging racks for tablets, lithium-ion batteries, electronic game units and laptops.

Claim summary

The insured claimed for water damage to the water damaged stock. The loss adjuster requested several quotations for the disposal of the equipment and the costs for the handling, the cheapest being close to $10,000 for the collection and disposal.

Works conducted

Sedgwick was brought in to manage the collection, recycling and repurposing of the damaged stock which included:

• 880 x tablets
• 86 charging racks for tablets
• Over 400 x lithium-Ion batteries
• 286 x electronic game units
• 27 x laptops

Savings and contributions

A total of 4.3 tonnes of e-waste was recycled, equating to a total of 1.764 tonnes of CO² emissions saved. Our coordinated planning resulted in the collection, recycling and repurposing of the damaged stock being executed for $4,979, just over half of the initial quoted price. Furthermore, we were able to materialise free disposal of all the e-waste components along with reduced disposal costs for the rest of the waste.

Conclusion

Sedgwick’s involvement in managing the collection, recycling and repurposing of the damaged stock resulted in significant cost savings for the insurer. Furthermore, we ensured quick remediation for the insured along with safe handling and disposal of the damaged stock.