War on e-waste

By Tania Martin
THE Shire of Yarra Ranges has hailed the introduction of a TV waste program as a step forward.
It comes just five weeks after the council called on the Federal Government to introduce a national scheme.
At a meeting in April, Yarra Ranges councillor Samantha Dunn said e-waste had become a huge problem in the region.
She told the council it was growing three times faster than normal rubbish.
The report also stated that an estimated 1.9 million televisions had entered Australia in the past 12 months and that more than 17 million were sitting in landfill.
Cr Dunn said a 2007 VECCI research paper had also revealed that the cost of e-waste was growing into a $50 million a year industry.
Environment Minister Peter Garrett recently (22 May) announced that state and territory leaders had agreed to introduce a national scheme.
“Given increasing community and industry concern about electronic waste… I am pleased that my colleagues agreed to take this major step forward by looking at the regulatory impacts of a recycling system,” he said.
Cr Dunn said it was fantastic to see the government doing something about the problem.
“Electronic waste is becoming such a problem and growing at a rapid rate,” she said.
“This is great news that we would soon have a recycling system.”
Cr Dunn said the inn-city suburbs of Melbourne had been able to trial a similar program.
But she said the program called ‘byte back’ had been too far away for Yarra Ranges residents to access.
“The closest program was in Camberwell and for many that is just too far to travel,” Cr Dunn said.