The City of Greater Bendigo is reminding residents that from July 1, 2019 all e-waste will be banned from landfill sites and kerbside bins throughout Victoria.
E-waste is any item with a plug, battery or cord that is no longer working or wanted. It includes computers, mobile phones, microwaves, printers, televisions, heaters, gaming consoles and kitchen appliances etc. From July 1, these items can no longer be placed in kerbside bins and instead must go to a designated e-waste drop-off point.
City Resource Recovery and Education Manager Brooke Pearce said the e-waste to landfill ban had been introduced by the Victorian Government in an effort to recover more of the valuable materials left inside e-waste that could be safely recovered and reused.
"From July 1 residents will need to take all their unwanted e-waste to one of the City's transfer stations located in Heathcote, Strathfieldsaye or Goornong, or the Eaglehawk Recycle Shop located at the entrance to Eaglehawk Landfill," Ms Pearce said.
"The City received funding from the Victorian Government to provide e-waste drop off points and upgrade existing e-waste collection and storage facilities at local transfer stations and the Eaglehawk Recycle Centre.
"Most people have electronic items in every room of their homes, including their garage. E-waste is growing three times faster than general municipal waste in Australia, due to increased technology trends, reduced product lifespan and consumer demand for new products.
"E-waste contains valuable materials that we can recover and reuse, and hazardous materials that can harm the environment and human health. Recovering this resource helps alleviate the strain put on the environment by stopping hazardous elements leaching into the ground when dumped in landfill.
"This is an important community issue as the more electronic goods people buy the more e-waste there will be in the future, so we need to be resourceful and smart disposing of old electronic items.
"The City has invested in a local advertising campaign to educate the community in the lead up to the ban."
- Over 1 million mobile phones are discarded in Australia every year. If properly recovered, we could reuse up to 16 tonnes of copper, 350 kilograms of silver and 34 kilograms of gold
- Over 16 million TVs are discarded in Australia every year
- It is estimated that just for televisions and computers, the amount of e-waste generated in Australia will grow from around 138,000 tonnes in 2012/2013 to 223,000 tonnes in 2023/2024, an increase of more than 60 percent
- 1 in 5 Australians admit to hoarding their old technology
