Residents in regional Victoria will soon be able to recycle their old analog TVs for free under a new joint government initiative.
Although it’s still in the planning stage, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said the program will help minimise e-waste following the digital switchover.
Analog transmissions were shut down in a large chunk of regional Victoria on Thursday, marking the next stage of Australia’s transition to digital-only television.
It affected an estimated 455,000 Victorian households.
Mr Conroy said the federal and state governments were working on a system that would allow residents to have their old TV sets recycled for free.
Currently there is no national scheme for recycling computers or other electronic waste, although there are companies who charge a fee to pick up and recycle.
The federal government is trying to legislate a national e-waste system which it hopes to have installed by the end of the year.
Mr Conroy said many Victorians would have upgraded their TVs because of the switchover and he wants to avoid having them all sent to landfill.
Any Victorian resident living in an area where the switchover has occurred will be eligible under the scheme.
They will be asked to take their TVs to a collection point in Sale, Wodonga, Shepparton, Swan Hill, Bendigo, Ballarat, Hamilton, Horsham and Nhill.
Further details on collection sites and when the scheme will start will be announced soon, a spokesman for the Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability Don Farrell said.
Melbourne and the other capital cities are scheduled to go digital on December 31, 2013.
