Should Australia get an e-waste tax? (19 posts)

Lobby groups have argued for years for the government to do something about e-waste. We dump an astonishing 1.6 million PCs into landfill every year and more than 6 million are stored away. That's not including all the TVs, printers and cables that are all but useless for parts.

Environment Minister Peter Garrett gave hope to the cause by supporting [[artnid: 304257 the latest and seemingly greatest|new]] push for e-waste recycling. It pulls no punches: everything from computers, to old TVs and toxic CRT monitors will be collected from your house or business. No more hauling off to a collection point and arguing why they should take your machine. This is the real deal.

But we will have to pay, one way or another. An e-tax will come in, either bore by the consumer at the point of sale or import, or by the industry.

So everyone says recycling is a good thing, but will you pay?

Let's just do it at the point of sale

That way everyone will have to pay for it, and people won't try to shirk out their responsabilities by dumping their old hardware in the back of a landfill.

Maybe we should start with the manufacturers NOT building-in...

...OBSOLESCENCE.

For years I have torn out my hair at PCs that have Windows XP and 256MB of RAM. What the hell is that?

Why do replaceable parts cost more than a new product? Case in point, Canon bubblejet, blocked nozzles, replacement parts, $189. New laser printer, (which doesn't waste colour ink either), $89 on special.

"Hi-Def" LCDs/TVs with screen resolutions LESS than 1920x1080, junk.

People don't know that and buy things that they'll have to throw out, wasting money, energy and destroying the environment.

Complain about CRTs as much as you want, I still use a somewhat small screen from 20 YEARS ago. What will happen when pixels start to fail on your $500 LCD in 13 months?

Stop making rubbish and the e-waste pile will dwindle.

Just my thoughts. Thanks.

Dump it in landfil??

You must be lucky where you live, as far as I can tell the standard approach to unwanted electronics in Australia is to dump it on the street, on the nature strip, down the nearest laneway, over the fence, on a bit of vacant land or just about anywhere where it is perceived to be "got rid off" and "not my problem".

We desperately need e-waste legislation and councils with the balls to enforce the litter laws.

Dump it in landfil??

You must be lucky where you live, as far as I can tell, the standard Australian approach is to dump unwanted electronic or electrical items on the street, on the nature strip, over the back fence, down the nearest laneway, in the nearest park, anywhere but in the landfill where it might take them half an hour to get there and cost money to do so!

We desperately need e-waste laws and councils with balls enough to enforce their dumping and littering laws.

Point of Sale - ewaste

I manage an e-waste facility, and we have several clients that use or services for the recycling of their obsolete equipment. One of our clients has shown vision by including the ability to recycle the item you are replacing when you buy one of their products, as a free service. This is something we are trying to push within the industry.

We are finding that residents are willing to pay for the recycling of e-waste in most cases, many councils are running e-waste events for their residents which increase the awareness of the community. The issue is local government is footing the bill, and being told by state and federal government to 'hold off' until a decision is made concerning the legislation around e-waste. ACT has a 'no e-waste in landfill' policy. I thought there was going to be a decision made on the 22nd of May at the Environment forum in Tassie, but the decision was to discuss it again in November :-)

more needs to be done theres no where but the tip in the wide bay area students can be used to keep the cost down n that also give em in to the IT sector as they can REFURBISH the old computers that are not to old n sell these second hand computers at a low price to poeple that dont have alot of money this also brings the pollution rate down as its less shipping going on ive also got heaps more ideas to do with e-waste recycling i have worked in a household recycling center in my area for just over a year two many poeple put e-waste in the recycling bin would love to see a non 4 profit company come my area so i can have a job again as i cant work in many places as the disability i have n im very good with computers

thank you for reading

My local council has come up with a wonderful solution. They no longer accept e-waste for the kerbside general clean up. They suggest returning it to the manufacturer.

They didn’t suggest what I do with the ten-year-old no name clones from shops that no longer exist, or fifty year old TVs made by manufacturers that are no longer manufacturing.

Good one. Would’ve helped, as well, if they’d mentioned it before we all put our stuff out on the kerb.

But I’m sure they feel good about it.

I don’t have a problem with recycling the stuff, but I see my local council closing their eyes to all kinds of recycling – paint, engine oil, e-waste, etc., patting themselves on the back, and hoping that someone else will take it away.

Bitter? Not much. JennyParker

hello, it's nice here so I am just saying hi. I've been watching site for a year now.

What antivirus do you use? Or antispyware.