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After more than a year in the pipeline, the national e-waste program for recycling used electronics edges one step closer to fruition after the Product Stewardship Bill was today passed by the Senate.The impending recycling scheme is set to see electronics manufacturers footing the bill for a pre-emptive recycling charge on their products – a price that many observers are hinting will trickle down to consumers in the end.
The national scheme will see the electronics and recycling industries working together to provide a nation-wide framework for collection and processing (most of which will be shipped off overseas by some of the larger e-waste recyclers). In fact, there’s only one small e-waste processing plant in Canberra that does all its processing within Australia.
The scheme will make it free for consumers to recycle their electronic gear due to the tax imposed on manufacturers.
Manufacturers have been quick to put their own spin on the matter for a bit of positive press, with the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA), which is made up of some of the big electronic gear makers, praising the Bill and claiming that they have been putting ‘years of pressure’ into pushing this scheme forward.
The e-waste scheme follows those of other regions like Europe where similar programs have already been in effect for years to divert electronic goods from ending up in landfill.
The Federal Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities has effectively put the implementation of the program into the hands of the peak bodies involved like the AIIA and the specially-created Product Stewardship Australia organisation.
There are a range of other ways to recycle electronic products currently available, including forking out the fee to have it processed by a recycler. Samsung has recently launched its own printer cartridge recycling program dubbed by forced acronym ‘S.T.A.R.T’ (or Samsung Takeback And Recycle Toner).
The scheme is expected to be in place by the end of 2011, in time for the cessation of analogue in Canberra, and an Australia-wide collection service will be progressively rolled out over five years. These services are aimed at both metropolitan and rural areas.
