Victorians will now be able to ditch their unwanted, end-of-life technology equipment in a green fashion following the launch of a state IT take-back program -- with support from big name vendors including Apple, Dell and HP.
Sustainability Victoria, part of the VIC government, has already been piloting the Byteback e-waste recycling scheme across the state since 2005 and will now be expanding the program, with a AU$2 million funding boost, to take in more hardware.
In its initial phase, Byteback has saved 300 tonnes of electronic and electrical waste from entering landfill.
The expanded Byteback scheme will local residents and small businesses to do away with end-of-life desktops, laptops, computer mice, monitors, printers, scanners, keyboards, computer power supplies, printed circuit boards, motherboards, network & memory cards, disk and CD drives.
The program will now be expanded from one site to nine. The second phase of the project will be run by Sustainability Victoria and the Australian Internet Industry Association (AIIA), in partnership with technology vendors Apple, Canon, Dell, Epson, Fujitsu, Fuji-Xerox, HP, IBM, Lenovo, and Lexmark.
Under the scheme, all vendors will pay for the transport and recycling for all equipment bearing their respective brand.
The Byteback scheme is schedule to run until 2008 however those involved are hopeful the program may yet be expanded across regions in Australia.
Sheryle Moon, CEO of the AIIA, told ZDNet Australia: "We will be talking with other government organisations at state and federal level. Once we're then abreast of the pilot we can really start discussions about a national stewardship framework."
According to the AIIA, over 90 percent of most computers can be recycled and, for every tonne of waste recycled, 5.5 tonnes of CO2 are saved.
