If Australia does not develop a national approach to recycling its IT, we will soon be dumping our toxic e-waste on developing countries, according to operators of Byteback, a government-backed free PC recycling service.
The outcome Byteback is aiming for, the Australian Information Industry Association's (AIIA) Victorian executive officer, Josh Millen, told ZDNet Australia, is "a national approach" to e-waste.
As part of such an approach, the AIIA would like to see Australian Customs charged with recording all equipment that enters the country, the setting up of a federally regulated "safety net" defining recycling standards, and the creation of more Byteback-like centres for processing materials.
The Byteback program -- a joint initiative between the AIIA and Sustainability Victoria -- currently has centres in Camberwell and Geelong, and will open two more in the west and south-east of Melbourne, said Millen. A total of nine centres are planned for Victoria.
"At this stage we haven't determined the minimum requirements for recyclers [in any nationwide scheme] and what percentage needs to be recycled," Millen said. Defining how much of each piece of hardware will be required ... is a critical step in influencing how much e-waste will eventually end up in landfill, both here and in developing countries.
The Australian Department of Environment and Heritage estimates that 1.6 million PCs -- containing lead, barium, hexavalent chromium, beryllium, mercury, cadmium and brominated fire retardants -- are destined for landfill in 2007 alone. Under current legislation e-waste can be shipped to poorly regulated developing countries.
Under Byteback's program, printed circuit boards are sent to Canada, nickel and lithium batteries are sent to France, cathode ray tubes are sent to the Netherlands and LCD screens are sent to the US for processing. Millen said a national approach to the issue and support from the Commonwealth government would help achieve the economies of scale required to begin processing such materials locally.
Currently, the highest global standards governing e-waste are applied within the EU under the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Directive which stipulates that 80 percent of equipment must be recycled . The remaining 20 percent goes to landfill.
By contrast, the Byteback trial has "a fairly high requirement" said AIIA's Millen. "Between 95 to 98 percent is completely recycled. We're aiming higher than [WEEE]."
Millen was against follow the path being pursued by the US.
"If you look at the recent US congressional report, 13 states are doing different things. The problem is that it's a fragmented system, which is putting increased pressure on industry.
"Industry in Australia, for past three years, has put up three different models [through the Department of Environment and Heritage] to say how we could run a scheme in Australia with plausible options. Now we need the government to help us getting past some of the road blocks," he said.
So what will it take for a national scheme to become a reality?
"It comes back to human resources within the state and federal governments. Is e-waste a national priority? If it was, there would be more resources in this process," said Millen.
Linkedin 
RSS Feeds 
Newsletters 
Alerts
