ETSA Utilities lighting the way on recycling

Thursday, 29 March, 2012

ETSA Utilities has been announced as the first electricity distributor in Australia to become a Signatory in the federal government’s FluoroCycle scheme, which aims to increase recycling of mercury-containing street lamps and reduce the amount of mercury entering the environment.

Across Australia an estimated 95% of lamps that contain mercury end up in landfill each year. They are the largest single category of consumer products that contain mercury and their disposal contributes significantly to Australia’s total annual emissions of mercury.

ETSA Utilities CEO Rob Stobbe said ETSA Utilities was proud to take a leading role in the environmentally responsible management of mercury-bearing lamps.

“We are the main provider of public lighting services in South Australia, with responsibility for more than 200,000 public streetlights, so we are well placed to make a significant, positive impact on the amount of mercury entering the environment,” Stobbe said.

“We have been recycling our street lights for more than 15 years, resulting in around 150 t of waste being diverted from landfill into resource recovery.

“This includes approximately 25 t of mercury-bearing waste which has been processed by CMA EcoCycle for recovery and recycling. This relationship will continue as we meet our ongoing commitment under the FluoroCycle scheme.

“Our commitment to recycling and resource recovery also extends to other areas of the business - in recent years we have recycled some 2400 t of scrap metal as well as about 370,600 L of oil.

“Becoming a FluoroCycle scheme Signatory complements ETSA Utilities’ current and future sustainability initiatives.”

The Administrator of FluoroCycle, Lighting Council Australia, said it was delighted to welcome ETSA Utilities as the first electricity utility member of the FluoroCycle scheme.

Lighting Council Australia’s CEO, Bryan Douglas, commented that electricity utilities were major users of mercury-containing lamps and that ETSA Utilities had adopted a commendable leadership role.