Revelations that criminals are selling Australian e-waste offshore has raised questions as to whether Australia is in breach of international trade obligations.
Customs is under pressure to explain the true scale of illegal operations to smuggle Australian electronic waste offshore, following revelations that it intercepted four ships laden with contraband e-waste this year.
The cargos consisted of discarded computers, mobile phones and other equipment destined presumably for overseas ports and illicit recycling depots.
The revelations, first reported by the ABC, raised concerns as to whether Australia was in breach of its international trade commitments by not taking adequate measures to properly control the management of e-waste.
Western Australia greens senator Scott Ludlam told CRN said he was unware of any previous instances where e-waste had been intercepted by Australian customs.
One of the leading politicians pushing for action in this area, the senator said that had the Customs revelations come a week earlier he and the Greens would have been able to grill the Federal Government during budget estimates. He is drafting a series of questions to put to South Australia Senator and Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and Urban Water Don Farrell regarding the matter.
Nevertheless, the federal parliament is debating product stewardship legislation that would potentially install a national e-waste collection system, “the likes of which we’ve never had before”, said Ludlam.
Such action could hardly come too soon with Australian recycling group The Boomerang Alliance reporting as far back as 2009 that the country’s e-waste problem was at a “tipping point” with some 234 million computers, phones, TVs and other items already in or about to join the existing mountains of material.
Still, Australia’s score card with regard to e-waste is better than in many other industries.
“It’s one of the few areas in waste policy where there’s been action,” Ludlam said, adding that a number of Australian industries had been effective in blocking efforts to reform practices around recycling.
Australia came in for intense criticism last year when it was revealed that large quantities of recycled tyres were being sent from Australia for burning and burial in South East Asia.
The issue of e-waste is of course far from unique to Australia.
Earlier this month the BBC reported on the astronomical quantities of e-waste being generated in the UK, noting that much of it was ending up in mass-dumping grounds in parts of Africa and other countries where lax regulations had created worrying environmental and health risks.
Neither Customs or the Department of Sustainability responded to CRN’s requests for comment by the time of publication.
