Mark Winser, Senior Project Officer at Kimbriki Resource Recovery Centre, with some of the 34.5 tonnes of e-waste Manly Council recently collected. Picture: VIRGINIA YOUNG ~PP422872
Manly Daily 25 November 2011 by Peter Bodkin
CONSUMER hunger for the latest-and-greatest electronic gadgetry is leading to record volumes of unwanted items awaiting disposal.
But thanks to e-waste collection and recycling programs from local councils and waste management centres, more than 90 per cent of this material is now being recycled.
Manly Council’s recent kerbside, e-waste pick-ups netted 34.5 tonnes of the obsolete material, which is now waiting at Kimbriki Resource Recovery Centre before being transferred for further processing.
From the mass of discarded televisions, computers and peripheral items, 18 tonnes of glass, 10 tonnes of scrap metal, 3 tonnes of plastic and 0.65 tonnes of copper are expected to be harvested.
Kimbriki senior project officer Mark Winser said while people once might have held onto a television for 15 years, modern electronics tended to have a very short lifespan, leading to increased levels of e-waste.
Mr Winser said the vast majority of the waste could be recycled, with Kimbriki shipping the material to a company which then broke it into its component parts for processing.
‘‘E-waste has an enormous amount of resources in it, things like precious metals,’’ he said.
‘‘Electrical goods, in particular, tend to have a very short life, so a lot of these products are maybe two or three years old. That’s the potential for a lot of valuable waste to be going into landfill.’’
Find out more about the SHOROC e-waste ban here.
