The largest e-waste recycling centre in the southern hemisphere was opened this week in Sydney's Villawood amid controversy over the Federal Government's refusal to commit to a mandatory e-waste recycling policy.
Electronic waste, or e-waste, includes electronic goods such as phones, televisions, stereos, computers and printers. E-waste is world's fastest growing form of garbage.
The plant, which was opened by Sim's Recycling Solutions, a subsidiary of Sims Metal Management, has the capacity to process about 20,000 tons of e-waste every year. However, even at full capacity this is only a faction of the 120,000 to 140,000 tons of e-waste produced by Australians every year. Sims estimates that it is growing 3-5 times faster than other waste streams and only four per cent of Australia's e-waste is recycled.
Photo credits: Alex Serpo, ZDNet.com.au
Surely it's about time for action on policy for managing e-waste effectively. Perhaps a better way to splash around the cash, than stimulus handouts, would be to support research and development in a new industry - re-use, recycling and extraction of precious materials from e-waste.