From 1 July 2019, the State Government is banning e-waste from all Victorian landfills.
E-waste – which refers to any item with a plug, battery or cord – is one of the fastest-growing categories of waste worldwide. Some examples of e-waste include; batteries, televisions, toasters, hairdryers, phones and computers.
Bass Coast Shire Council is teaming up with Sustainability Victoria to increase the amount of e-waste that goes to recycling centres and is urging residents to get behind a new campaign to reduce the amount of e-waste being sent to landfill.
This will involve working with the community to help them to understand what e-waste is and how it can be disposed of properly.
There are some extremely useful and valuable substances contained within e-waste that can be recycled and reused. In fact, 90 per cent of e-waste is recyclable it just has to be taken to the transfer station to ensure it is recycled.
Bass Coast Shire Deputy Mayor Cr Bruce Kent said we are living in an increasingly disposable age.
“Even large ticket electrical items are discarded with far greater frequency than a generation ago,” Cr Kent said.
“It’s vital that we get on board with this campaign.”
E-waste can contain hazardous substances such as lead, mercury, phosphor, arsenic, fluids and refrigerants. If e-waste is disposed of inappropriately, these materials can contaminate our natural environment and potentially be damaging to our health.
As well as hazardous elements, e-waste can contain a range of non-renewable materials, such as copper, silver palladium and gold. These valuable materials are lost to recovery once the E-waste product enters landfill.
Bass Coast residents are able to recycle televisions, phones, batteries, whitegoods, computers including laptops, server equipment, computer monitors, keyboards, computer mice, hard drives, printed circuit boards, disk drives, scanners and printers, photocopiers and fax machines at any of Council’s transfer stations for no charge.
Other items, such as microwaves, vacuum cleaners, hairdryers, alarm clocks, toasters, irons, kettles, power tools, toner and ink cartridges, video or DVD players, hi-fi equipment, electronic games and consoles and digital and video cameras can be taken to any of Council’s transfer stations for a small fee.
