01.e-waste
Computers have become an integral part of daily life, but as they become obsolete we’re faced with the problem of disposing of all the e-waste. What can be done to avoid all these machines ending up as landfill?
At present, there’s no overarching national framework to manage the disposal of old computers, but this may change as the Government is considering a national recycling scheme. Most state and territory governments have an environmental department that are responsible for recycling schemes in conjunction with local councils. There are also organisations that refurbish computers and provide them to not-for-profit groups, or accept computers for disposal.
Planet Ark and Sensis created the Recycling Near You website that lets you search by area or product to find a local recycling centre for computers and a range of other household items.
Please note: this information was current as of October 2009 but is still a useful guide to today's market.
CHOICE Policy Point
The Product Stewardship Compact for Computers and Computer Peripherals, which CHOICE has signed onto, spells out the principles for a national, comprehensive product stewardship scheme for end-of-life computer equipment.
- Above all, the scheme needs to have: the participation of all manufacturers and importers; be simple and fair for consumers to use; and result in meaningful recycling outcomes. CHOICE wants such a scheme to be established urgently.
- Read the compact in full and show your support by signing our petition.
How you can help
- Go to reborn.org.au and send an email to the Environment Minister urging him to take action on e-waste recycling schemes.
- Use the Recycling Near You website to find the nearest recycling centre.
- See our national list of computer and peripherals recyclers and refurbishers at the end of this article.
- Go to Mobile Muster to find your nearest drop-off point for handsets, chargers and batteries.
- Recycle cartridges via Planet Ark drop-off bins.
- Use the Energy Star ratings and choose, where possible, products with the lowest energy use.
- Use the Byteback computer recycling scheme in Victoria.
- Ask if the company has take back and recycling schemes when you’re buying a product.
The relentless pursuit of innovation has given rise to faster, cheaper, and better products. We’ve benefited from smaller gadgets, more powerful computers and devices that are capable of many more tasks — affecting how we work, how we play and even how we socialise.
But as our appetite for new and improved electronic and computer products grows, so too does the pile of e-waste. Sadly, recycling initiatives to manage our discarded products have not kept pace with the rate at which devices are being replaced. And the ‘eco-baggage’ or footprint of a product starts at its inception. For example, a UN study found that manufacturing a single computer and monitor uses at least 240kg of fossil fuels, 22kg of chemicals and 1.5 tonnes of water.
But when the products are thrown away they mostly go to landfill. Today we understand that e-waste is a huge and growing global problem. However, the enormity of e-waste turnover can only be guessed at because it’s hard to get real figures. The United Nations estimates that globally some 20 to 50 million tonnes of e-waste is generated every year.
Australia is one of the top 10 consumers of electronic technology in the world and as a result contributes its share to the e-waste problem. We urgently need to address the issue with better recycling efforts. Locally, it’s estimated that only 1.5% of computers are recycled and that a staggering 37 million computers are in landfill, according to the Total Environment Centre (TEC). The TEC also estimates that just 4% of mobile phones are recycled and a tiny 1% of TVs are recycled.
But the real story is behind the statistics. The vast number of products committed to landfill every year means toxic materials including mercury and lead can leach into soil and rare and non-renewable materials are wasted and not re-used.
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