Before it can go ahead, MRI must get a commitment from Australia companies to supply enough recyclable material for the project to be successful.
"We are keen to provide a total in-country solution but we need a minimum of 7000 tons per annum, excluding monitors, of electronic and telecommunications equipment," MRI director Will LeMessurier told ZDNet Australia. "We're about half way there," he added.
MRI is currently in talks with industry big wigs such as Compaq, IBM and Telstra and although it doesn't have any written agreements as yet, MRI is confident of securing the volume commitment over the next three months.
"This has got to happen, it's just a matter of when," LeMessurier said.
Environmentalists are taking a wait-and-see approach to the venture.
"We haven't actually seen [a totally in-country solution] in Australia yet," a NSW Environment Protection Authority spokesperson said. "We're not jumping up and down at the minute but the idea sounds great. We will encourage corporations to take part if it proves to be feasible."
The proposed plant would be capable of processing 25,000 tons of recycled material per annum according to LeMessurier.
Equipment received for recycling in Australia at present is sanitised, and stripped of circuit boards and other hazardous waste before the balance is exported to countries such as China for dismantling. Once taken away from Australian shores "we don't have any control over what happens to it -- the waste may go to landfill for all we know," LeMessurier said.
In side-stepping offshore waste disposal, MRI claims it will provide an environmentally friendly waste disposal solution -- which will use a mechanical process to separate components as opposed to a chemical or incineration process with potential detrimental effects to the environment.
LeMessurier claims MRI will provide a solution capable of recycling 98 percent of the equipment.
"Computer recycling is a tricky area in which to work," an Australian Internet Industry Association spokesperson said. "Profit margins are tight and recycling has yet to prove that it can pay its own way. However, the industry is committed to reducing the amount of waste it creates."
LeMessurier anticipates that if volume commitment is met, a plant will be operational by early 2002.
