E-waste a hot topic at the Australasian Waste & Recycling Expo

At last week’s Australasian Waste & Recycling Expo (AWRE), experts on e-waste called for greater cohesion between the industry, government and the community to assist with overcoming this growing problem.

Speaking at the ‘E-waste futures’ panel discussion, John Gertsakis of Infoactiv commented that there is a proliferation of e-waste in Australia that needs to be dealt with. Other panellists agreed, stating that Australia is lagging behind its counterparts in e-waste recycling while Europe leads the way, having created a sense of shared responsibility between manufacturers, government and the community.

Rebecca Brown from the Western Australian Local Government Association called for new legislation to shift the onus back onto manufacturers and to set new standards for the quality of electronic goods produced, rather than relying solely on product stewardship and recycling. Panellists also called for greater leadership at a government level, as aspiring to be e-waste free would create jobs, business opportunities and investment in infrastructure.

Meanwhile, on the exhibition floor, MobileMuster created a dynamic installation out of 570 old mobile handsets and 500 circuit boards to replicate an Australian Rules football field. The phones represented the 5.7 million unused mobile phones in storage across Victoria, which is enough to cover the surface of the MCG one and a half times — and to divert 985 tonnes of e-waste from landfill.

AWRE will be back next year from 13–14 July, with event organiser Diversified Communications having formed an in-principle agreement with the Waste Management Association of Australia (WMAA) to host the association’s Enviro Conference at the 2016 expo. For more information, visit www.awre.com.au.