With the Consumer Electronics Association expecting that, globally, we will spend more than $1 trillion on electronics this year, e-waste recyclers are preparing to be inundated with old, unwanted or outmoded kit, from TVs to mobile telephones.
E-waste recycler Buyequip’s director Jamie Miller said, like the gadgetry they dealt with, the electronics recycling process was expensive and complicated: “It’s the fastest-growing waste problem we face. It is running at three times the rate of general waste.”
It is not just the rate of e-waste that is worrying.
E-waste recycling is difficult — old TVs and laptops need to be pulled down by hand — and most electronics use heavy metals.
Electronics that end up in landfill account for about 70 per cent of the heavy metals leeching into the soil.
Despite more than 90 per cent of electronics ending up in landfill, e-waste businesses said the general public was becoming more aware of the need to recycle electronics.
In the Australian Capital Territory, televisions and monitors are banned from landfill and the Federal Government is expected to introduce similar legislation for the rest of the country later this year, further raising awareness.
Simms Recycling Solutions national manager Graham Muir, who oversees the largest electronics recycling centre in the Southern Hemisphere, based in Villawood in Sydney’s west, explained the process.
“There are two processes we use, one for CRT [televisions and monitors] and one for e-waste such as computers and other electronics like toasters,” he said.
“The electronics are assessed to see if they are still in working order and, if they are, they are resold.”
The electronics found to be outmoded or not working are then broken into pieces with the different materials such as glass and batteries separated.
Computer motherboards — which were once a rich source of gold but now use just a fraction of the precious metal — are sent overseas to be further broken down for reprocessing.
