Acknowledging the risks and opportunities associated with e-waste, the Victorian Government is banning e-waste from Victoria’s landfill from 1st July 2019.
The new regulatory measures, in the form of waste management policies, have been developed to ban e-waste from landfill and specify how e-waste must be managed. The Victorian Government estimates 109,000 tonnes of e-waste was generated in Victoria in 2015, with the assessment citing studies in the UK suggesting around 75 per cent of e-waste is generated by households.
The market value for the recycled components, the cost of reprocessing, fluctuating commodity prices and the regulatory framework that affect e-waste streams are hurdles for re-processors to overcome while the landfilling of e-waste is still legal.
To encourage higher rates of recycling of e-waste, the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme (NTCRS) was introduced in 2011. This mandatory product stewardship scheme requires manufacturers or importers of television and computer products over a certain threshold to pay for a proportion of the recycling.
The funding comes from some of the largest IT companies in the world, including Dell, Apple and Toshiba and goes towards collection schemes across Victoria.
One of the key challenges with the ban is that it covers all electrical items with a power cord and/or battery pack i.e. vacuum cleaners, power tools and games consoles, items not covered by the NTRCS and the cost to collect and recycle these items will not be covered by the manufacturer or importer.
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KS Environmental is able to provide clients with e-waste recycling collection bins for e-waste items under the NTRCS scheme. We shall keep clients informed as to solutions that evolve for items outside the NTRCS scheme as they become available. To find out more about collections please contact us.