BRISBANE based eWaste company helping the Logan community reduce their carbon footprint

To help celebrate Keep Australia Beautiful week, Buyequip will host a free, computer drop off day at Officeworks, Browns Plains on Friday August 27.

Buyequip, along with proud sponsors Officeworks and Westpac Browns Plains, invite local businesses and residents to drop off unwanted eWaste including computers, printers, laptops, CRT monitors and all computer peripherals (televisions excluded).

The 2010 focus of Keep Australia Beautiful Week is on increasing recycling to help reduce landfill waste and enable the reuse of valuable resources. The items collected at the Recyclathon will be assessed for reuse or broken down for optimum disposal utilising a range of recycling channels and methods to minimise waste in landfills.

Keep Australia Beautiful is very pleased to be associated with Buyequip’s eWaste Recyclathon day,” KAB Queensland CEO, Rick Burnett said.

“Waste management is one of the biggest concerns for Queensland’s growing population, and we must find better methods of resource recovery from everything we throw away.

“That means recovering the precious metals and components from our outdated and unwanted electronic goods and re-using them.”

There are no eWaste recycling solutions within the Logan area at present, and by teaming up with the local branches of Officeworks and Westpac, Buyequip is able to provide the community with the opportunity to recycle their eWaste and keep it out of local dumps.

Officeworks will put on a BBQ sausage sizzle for the day and all proceeds from this will be donated to Keep Australia Beautiful.

“Congratulations to Buyequip, and all those involved in this innovative Recyclathon,” Mr Burnett said.

We're eWasting the planet

The costs for recycling electronic equipment far outweighs the financial returns from the contained materials.

Product Stewardship is the Government’s focus for solving Australia’s growing eWaste problem.

The National Waste Policy Implementation Plan discussed at the Environmental Protection Heritage Council’s meeting in Darwin earlier this month had Product Stewardship framework as a top waste priority for 2011.

But what does Product Stewardship involve? And how does it propose to solve the eWaste problem?

The Government approved Product Stewardship scheme is being constructed by the government and will be financed by the manufacturers. Manufacturers will be required to pay an import licence when bringing these goods into the country to cover the costs of recycling. As part of this, television and computer importers will be required to have a recycling program in place that will ensure the proper disposal of electronic waste.

It is also important to note that the costs for recycling of electronic equipment far outweigh the financial return from the contained materials. As such, it is argued that the costs for the recycling electronics will eventually be passed on to the consumer as the manufacturers seek to maximise profits.

In addition, the scheme does not solve the problem of the already purchased computers and televisions in homes and offices across the country. In the interim the consumer and - now more commonly - local governments will foot the bill for the recycling of these items. Corporate, businesses and the general public can utilise Buyequip for the environmental disposal of electronic waste.

Along with manufacturers and governments, individuals as consumers also need to take some responsibility for their purchases of electronic equipment. Reduce your environmental impact by sourcing recycling or reuse avenues for your computers or televisions, a small recycling fee now will prevent long term expenses in the future.

A StEP in the right direction

eWaste and it's environmental impact is under the spotlight and statistics are expected to increase significantly over the next 10 years. Australia and the surrounding region needs to act quickly to tackle the growing problem.

Griffith University hosted the first Asia Pacific StEP (Solving the eWaste problem) conference in Brisbane on Wednesday July 21 bringing together more than 100 people of various industry bodies.

The major themes of the conference were legislation, redesign, reuse and recycling. The conference had a key purpose - to collaborate ideas on the development of a strategy for the environmental management of electronic waste in th Asia Pacific region.

The Environmental Officer for Canon Australia who attended the StEP Conference said that the day provided some very useful information that will guide the development of a regional strategy.

"Keynote speakers from various countries across the globe including Greece, Japan and Taiwan spoke of their current eWaste management systems and made recommedations that will be considered in solving the issue locally".

The Asia Pacific region is certainly lagging behind the rest of the world in handling of eWaste with more than 90 per cent of electronics ending up in landfills.

Product Stewardship was the primary focus at the Environmetal Protection and Heritage Council's (EPHC) meeting in Darwin last week. As part of the National Waste Policy Implementation Plan, a national Product Stewardship scheme is scheduled to be implemented by mid 2011 in an effort to manage and deal with the eWaste issue. Product Stewardship forces manufacturers to take responsibility for electronic equipment when it comes to the end of useful life.