HP and Dell call on Australian consumers to recycle more unwanted electronic goods

TechCollect yesterday hosted a global e-waste forum in Sydney with keynote European technology speakers and local experts inspiring invited guests towards achieving Australia’s stated goal of 80% recycled e-waste by 2022.

Electronic waste (e-waste) is one of the fastest growing contributors to Australia’s waste. About 16.8 million TVs, computers, printers and related accessories are disposed of each year in Australia, an estimated 106,000 tonnes of e-waste - only about 30% of which is currently recycled responsibly. 

“Australia has an ambitious national e-waste recycling goal, no question, but we’re heading in the right direction, with about 30% of computers and TVs now recycled after only a year of operation,” said Carmel Dollisson, CEO of TechCollect, a federal government approved, not-for-profit, e-waste collection company. TechCollect is a by-industry-for-industry operation, supported by more than 60 of Australia’s leading technology companies, including HP, Dell, Panasonic, Canon, Fuji, Xerox and Toshiba, to name a few.

“To keep our planet healthy, we all need to work together to raise awareness about how easy and beneficial it is to recycle electronic products, which recovers at least 90% of the materials and saves them from landfill,” she said. 

The panel acknowledged Europe’s almost decade-long head start and saw benefit in learning from developments there while avoiding the pitfalls.  “In Europe, take-back e-waste recycling is a huge and growing opportunity for recovering resources from end-of-life products; whereas it’s still talked about in terms of a waste problem in Australia,” observed Take-Back Regulations Manager, EMEA for HP Daniel Seager.

“While it is great to see the first year’s target be achieved, it is clear that there is a lot to do, particularly in the consumer space, on education. Expansion of the regulation to a full product scope would assist with this behaviour change,” said Jean Cox-Kearns, Global Take-Back Compliance Director for Dell.