E-waste Recycling in Australia

Electronic waste is one of the fastest growing contributors to Australia’s waste stream. As more and more outdated electronic equipment ends up in landfill, the negative impacts of e-waste on the environment and humans will increase.

Electronic waste can come in many forms including computers, photocopiers, printers, faxes, monitors, batteries and mobile phones.



According to public data on internet, in 2008, there has been an estimated 37 million computers in Australia that were already in landfill or sent to landfill. With over 3 million computers being sold every year, 75% of them will end up in landfill. In 2007/8 16.8 million computers reached their end of life. Of this, only 9% will be recycled. In the following years, this problem will be more serious. Besides, 17 million televisions were either in landfill or sent to landfill in 2008.The growing e-waste continues to be a troublesome problem for the environment.

Some of these items can be highly toxic and environmentally damaging. The following harmful substances can be found in everyday e-waste.

• Lead in cathode ray tubes and solder
• Mercury in switches and housing 
• Arsenic in cathode ray tubes
• Antimony trioxide as flame retardant 
• Selenium in circuit boards
• Cadmium in semiconductors
• Cobalt in steel for magnets

When e-waste is sent to landfill, poisonous substances can leach from decomposing water into the environment.So how to recycle and reuse these e-waste is a pressing problem for Australia. E-waste like telephone wires, household cables, AC radiator are not difficult to recycle. With a copper cable granulator or AC radiator recycling machine, you can easily turn waste into profit.