Skip to navigation | Skip to content


Around half of all Australian households now have a computer and over 36% use the Internet at home. In such a technology-loving nation it's a fair bet that the computer you're reading this story on isn't your first. But what happened to your old computers?

Growing mountains of e-waste are accumulating around the globe.

Growing mountains of e-waste are accumulating around the globe. (Source: iStockphoto)

In Australia we've seen rapid uptake of new technology, from VCRs to personal organisers to DVD players. Culturally, we're somewhat proud of our techno-savvy attitudes. We feel that it reflects our willingness to accept, rather than resist, change. Australia is currently one of the top ten countries using information and communication technology, ranking tenth in the world for spending per capita and fifth in the world for spending as a percentage of gross domestic product. In short, we love spending money on gadgets.

However, with the constant drive to have the newest and latest products comes the inevitable wastage of the 'old' products they supersede. Obsolete electronic goods, or 'e-waste' is one of the fastest growing waste types and the problem of e-waste is global. New electronic equipment technology is constantly being developed, there is rapid adoption of this technology and there is an increasing speed with which this technology reaches obsolescence.

Andy, a 30-year old PR officer, bought her first computer in 1994. $2,200 got her a 486 PC package with a colour inkjet printer. The last 9 years and various employers have seen Andy's main computer change 5 times. Each computer has sat on her desk for an average of only eighteen months.

There are an estimated 9.2 million computers in use around Australia. It is expected that over this year a further 2.1 million computers will enter the market, while 3 million will reach the end of their life. This amounts to thousands of tonnes of 'e-waste' made up of obsolete computers along with broken monitors, used toner and ink cartridges, modems, printers and a range of other peripherals and consumables. The question is "Where have Andy's and the rest of Australia's unwanted computers and IT waste gone?"

^ to top

Garage days

So just what do you do with a computer that you no longer need? Give it away? Trash it? Recycle it?

"I paid a few hundred to get a Pentium processor and modem for my old 486 so that I could use the internet at home," says Andy. "Eventually, I no longer needed it. Even with the upgrades I couldn't give it away. No one wanted it."

Andy's 486 sat in her garage for four years before she gave it to Computerbank, a Melbourne-based not-for-profit organisation that recycles computers and donates them to disadvantaged and community groups. Andy is not alone. It is estimated that in 2006 there will be around 1.6 million computers disposed of in landfill, 1.8 million put in storage (in addition to the 5.3 million already gathering dust in garages and other storage areas) and 0.5 million recycled in Australia alone.

^ to top

Why is e-waste a problem?

In Australia we're reasonably good at recycling through council collections. The materials collected through kerbside collections are largely simple materials — such as glass, aluminium and mixed paper — that can be sorted and resold on the commodity market. The difficulty with electronic waste and many other products is that they are made from a huge range of component materials that are useless for further manufacture until the product is dismantled and the component materials are separated — often a very difficult and expensive process.

Computers and other electronic equipment are made from hundreds of different materials. Many of these materials are inherently valuable, such as gold and platinum, and many are non-renewable. If they can be extracted they can be reused in manufacture again as a 'secondary' raw material.

There are also some nasties in e-waste. Heavy metals including lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic are used in electronic equipment. When disposed of they can leach from landfill tips into the water table. Brominated-flame retardants used in computer equipment are both an occupational and environmental health threat. Printer inks and toners often contain toxic materials such as carbon black and cadmium. It is these environmental health implications that have put e-waste under the spotlight of international governments and environmentalists alike.

^ to top

"Not in my backyard" — exporting the e-waste problem

Realising the risks of heavy metals and other toxins, many developed nations were quick to place restrictions on the disposal of certain types of e-waste. Unfortunately, the concern for the problem of e-waste in some countries only stretched as far as the local environment. In the USA, consumers take a certain comfort in programs that offer to recycle their obsolete computers. However, few of these programs recycle locally. Some begin as well-intentioned programs that meet difficulties. Some are a downright attempt at 'green-washing'.

Last year, the Basel Action Network and the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition released the alarming report Exporting Harm: The Techno-Trashing of Asia. The report found that 50 to 80% of e-waste collected for recycling in the United States is exported to developing nations such as China, India and Pakistan, where the environment is being polluted and local men, women and children are being exposed to toxins.

In the USA local recycling facilities operate under strict occupational health and safety standards. Many people of the first world have no idea of what "recycling" really looks like in developing nations.

"Recycling centres" have sprung up in developing nations to cater for the exported waste. Electronic goods are reused or recycled in unregulated and unsafe conditions. In towns like Guiyu in China it is not uncommon to see open burning of plastics and wires and smelting of circuit boards to reclaim metals. Riverbank acid baths are used to extract gold. Lead-containing cathode ray tubes from monitors and television sets don't render much of marketable value and so are dumped. Toner cartridges are pulled apart manually, sending clouds of toner dust into the air. The workers, some of whom are children, generally work without facemasks or protective clothing. Guiyu's ground water is now so polluted that drinking water has to be trucked in from 30km away.

^ to top

The Basel Convention

International outrage at the trafficking of hazardous waste led to the drafting and adoption of the Basel Convention under the United Nations Environment Programme. The Basel Convention, a legally binding international agreement, was developed to address the problem of the uncontrolled movement and dumping of hazardous wastes across international boundaries, particularly to developing nations.

Australia ratified the Basel Convention in 1992 and now hazardous wastes can only be exported from Australia with a permit, granted only where it can be shown that the wastes will be managed in an environmentally sound manner in the country of import. Under Hazardous Waste Act, exporting hazardous waste without a permit is an offence, punishable with a fine of up to $1 million or imprisonment for up to five years.

156 countries have now ratified the Basel agreement, ensuring a level of international cooperation that may limit the growth of Guiyu-style 'recycling centres'. The Bush Administration has already received widespread criticism for placing commercial interests over environmental through opposition to the Kyoto agreement. The Basel agreement brings a sense of de ja vu - of the original Basel Convention signatory nations only Haiti, Afghanistan and (you guessed it) the United States of America have not ratified the Convention.

^ to top

Global solutions - extended producer responsibility & design for the environment

Perhaps our society's biggest problem with e-waste (and other waste types) is our backward approach - we wait until we have a waste problem before we think about solving it. According to Helen Lewis, Director of the Centre for Design at RMIT University, tackling the problem at the source is often cheaper and more effective than trying to solve the problem at the end of the line. "A lot of the attention has focused on waste legislators, when our answers could be coming from product designers," says Lewis. And she would know, having spent a number of years as Manager of Industry Programs at the state government waste authority EcoRecycle Victoria.

"If we're serious about addressing our waste problems, we need to start work at the design stage of a product's life cycle. Products can be better designed so that they last longer, are more environmentally responsible and so that they can be more easily dismantled and recycled at the end of their life."

The Centre for Design at RMIT University is a leader in the growing field of Design for the Environment. This approach to design ensures that environmental impacts, including pollution and waste, are considered and minimised at all stages of a product's life, not just at the disposal stage. Design for the Environment fits in with a broader theme - the concept of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). EPR involves producers and original equipment manufacturers taking more responsibility for managing the environmental impacts of their products throughout their life. In other words, it's about making the producer pay.

The European Parliament's Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (affectionately known as 'WEEE') highlights EPR as a key component of any solution to our growing e-waste problem. Other studies, including Environment Australia's Product Stewardship Discussion Paper, say the same common-sense thing — that producers should design products better so that they are less harmful for the environment and so that they last longer and therefore don't need to be recycled and replaced as often. They also call on original equipment manufacturers to take their used products back and recycle or dispose of them responsibly.

^ to top

Local solutions

There are a few Australian initiatives that are starting the assault on the mountain of e-waste and they're starting small. A few years ago the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) started a mobile phone and battery recycling program. AMTA partnered with environment group Planet Ark to educate the Australian public about the program. Hundreds of thousands of mobile phones have been recycled, recovering gold, nickel, copper and plastics for other manufacturing and keeping the cadmium from the batteries out of landfill and therefore out of the water table. This program is now a role model for both mobile phone recycling programs overseas and for recycling programs for other types of electronic waste.

More recently, resource recovery specialist Close the Loop Ltd developed toner cartridge processing technology in the form of a 'Green Machine'. This new technology enables cartridges that aren't suited to remanufacturing to be recycled into their component materials for reuse, with virtually a zero waste to landfill outcome. The first 'Green Machine' works away in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, complying with Australia's strict occupational health and safety standards. Unlike the situation in Guiyu, a machine — specially designed to protect the workers and prevent the fine toner dust from posing an explosion risk — extracts the residue toner.

Close the Loop joined forces with Planet Ark and the printer industry to develop a cartridge recycling program for the Australian public. The initiative 'Cartridges 4 Planet Ark' can now remanufacture or recycle all makes and models of toner and ink cartridge, including toner drums from photocopiers and fax cartridges. Many of the printer manufacturers involved in the program are incorporating it into their own EPR programs. Information collected during the recycling process will be fed back to these manufacturers so that future products can be designed for easier recycling. The program is now seeking both ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 accreditation. The technology allows cartridge waste to be processed locally, taking away the need to export this potentially hazardous waste. Because of this, the worldwide printer industry is closely watching the program with a view to implementing similar programs overseas.

Mobile phones and printer cartridges are one thing, but computers are a bigger, bulkier consideration. However, progress is being made with computer recycling too. Last Summer, Resource NSW (the NSW government waste authority) and the Australian Information Industry Association ran 'Recycle IT!' a pilot computer recycling program. Dell, one of Australia's leading computer companies, has just launched a national computer recycling program that will recycle both their own and competitor brand computers.

The success of computer recycling programs globally remains to be seen, but we have seen other role model programs for mobile phones and printer cartridges work. The next stage is to see new electronic products designed with the environment in mind. Maybe Andy's current hardware will last longer than its predecessors. All Andy and her employer will have to worry about is buying new, ever-changing software and operating system upgrades — but that is another story.

Tags: environment, environmental-management, recycling-and-waste-management, environmental-impact

^ to top

Published 06 November 2003