The Sims plant was opened by former Australian rocker and Minster for Environment Heritage and the Arts, Peter Garrett.
Garrett was drilled by the press on whether the Federal Labour Government intends to make the recycling of e-waste mandatory, however he did not directly take a stance on the issue. He said: "What I want to do is look at the best measures we can agree with states and also local councils to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill."
"The Commonwealth has signalled its intention to develop a national waste policy," he said. However the Minister did not give any time frame.
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.