Australia’s environment is beautiful, but as of lately, electronic waste has been threatening that. In fact, statistics show that electronic waste is one of the biggest environmental concerns in Australia. In this article, we’ll focus on one of the reasons why: the one that has to do with landfill and electronic waste.
What’s Going On?
Statistics show that the waste stream of electronics has been up to three times higher annually than that of municipal waste. This is a problem because it means that electronics are not being correctly disposed of. Instead of being recycled, which allows 95% of electronic parts to be reused and placed back into circulation, they are being dumped into our landfill, taking up unnecessary space and poisoning the environment.
If that isn’t enough for you, imagine a small truck full of rubbish. Multiply that by 22 million. That’s approximately how much waste we send to landfill annually. It’s no wonder that our landfills are prematurely filling up, especially when we consider that a significant portion of that could be recycled; not sitting in landfill and taking up precious space!
Environmental Issues
Even if we look past the amount of space that electronic waste takes up, the problem does not get any better. Incorrect disposal of electronic waste means that the hazardous materials within many of the electronics, such as lead and mercury, sink into our soil and underground water systems, poisoning ourselves and our environment.
State Wide Break Down
Each state faces its own individual issues, and so each one aims to address them differently. We’ll take a look at some of those.
NSW
In 2010, it was predicted that all landfills in NSW would be completely full by 2017. To try and slow the filling of landfills, NSW chose to support the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme.
This means that both government and industry bodies will take part in collecting and recycling waste televisions, computers, printers and computer products. The government will also make it accessible to residents and small businesses to dispose of their e-waste at chosen drop-off points. This way, throwing e-waste in the landfill will not be the first thought that residents have.
Victoria
Victoria aims to address their landfill problem through legislation. By banning e-waste from landfill completely, they hope that their landfill sites will no longer fill up so quickly and that, where possible, materials from e-waste will be appropriately recycled and reused.
The legislation will be implemented mid-2018.
Western Australia
In Perth, the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme applies, however, the main ways to dispose of electronic waste is to contact a specialist company, or to access recycling drop-off centres.
Perhaps this is why Western Australia has been termed the worst recycler in Australia. Compared to the national average of 42.6% of waste being recycled, WA only recycles 28.2% of all rubbish.
Contact Us
One of the largest environmental problems that Australia faces is electronic waste. One of the best ways to address and mend this problem is to correctly dispose of our electronic goods once they are no longer useful.
We at Perth E-Waste can assist with that disposal. We have extensive knowledge and experience in the e-waste industry. If you have any questions about e-waste or disposal methods, feel free to contact us at (08) 9314 7111 or online.