By Penny Langfield

Replacing the cradle-to-grave model of waste production is key to reducing problems associated with electronic waste, according to a waste strategy specialist.

Fiona Glance, acting strategy manager for city-based services at Brisbane City Council said a paradigm shift was needed to manage escalating e-waste problems in Australia.

In 2006 there were approximately 1.6 million computers in landfill, 7.1 million in storage and half a million recycled, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

“E-waste is growing at over three times the rate of general waste due to two main factors: one, the decreasing lifespan of electronic equipment, and a consumer demand to own the latest products,” Ms Glance said.

She addressed the E-waste2010 South Pacific Regional E-waste Workshop in Brisbane this week explaining her council’s new waste strategy, Towards Zero Waste, which focuses on reuse, recycling and avoidance to stem the rising tide of electronic and other waste.

“The traditional way in business has been to take raw materials from the earth, process it, manufacture it into a product, distribute it out to a market, they will use it… and then it will come to the end of its life and it will end up in the landfill,” she said.

The cyclical, or cradle-to-cradle, model Brisbane is installing extracts the raw materials from the product at the end of its consumer life to use again in manufacturing different products.

Shaking the disposable mentality and avoiding waste are key elements in Brisbane’s strategy.

“We have a reuse pool for mobile phones rather than issuing everyone with brand new mobile phones each time,” Ms Glance said.

Redistributing computers to smaller and community organisations is another strategy, as is smart procurement of electronic devices.

“There’s the option to buy the cheapest… or we can buy good quality at a higher price and the question is which is better,” Ms Glance said.

In a study of the overall efficiencies and costs of running different priced appliances the more expensive model upfront was the most efficient and cost-effective over a five-year period.

For unavoidable waste, Ms Glance identified recycling programs as the next step to stop electronic waste hitting landfill.

“We started in 2006 to hold annual collection events for e-waste and we’ve been doing this ever since. They started as a one-off event and they’ve grown in popularity to become four every year,” she said, adding that permanent drop-off points have been installed at transfer stations around Brisbane.

“In the first year we collected 52 tonnes, it increased to 181 tonnes [in 2008], by 2009 we were at 558, in this financial year we’re at 713 tonnes,” she said.

Ms Glance admitted the e-waste recycling initiatives had become expensive for the council, especially as collection services had become more widespread and popular.

“We don’t generate any income from our e-waste initiatives, it’s purely a community service, we pay the full cost for the collection of the material and the processing of it and it’s becoming quite a financial burden on us,” she said.

She welcomed moves from the Federal Government to legislate product stewardship, where the creator of an electronic product takes responsibility for its impacts across the lifespan.

Ian Birks, chief executive officer of the Australian Information Industry Association, told the workshop a national e-waste recycling scheme would be in place in 2011.

He said industry and government had been working together to finalise the terms of the legislation but not all companies were on board yet.

“Without a level playing field that’s mandated by legislation across all states and territories any national take back scheme is destined, we believe, to fail.”

Mr Birks said, however, that with “the clear support of industry, government and the community viable solutions to e-waste in Australia we believe are now firmly within reach”.