Waste generation and resource recovery in Australia

20.Product-specific (product stewardship) data

This section provides a summary of the available data on products covered by a product stewardship scheme in Australia, either under the Product Stewardship Act 2011 or industry schemes. The Product Stewardship Act 2011 (page 3) provides the following definition of product stewardship:

“Product stewardship is an approach to reducing the environmental and other impacts of products by encouraging or requiring manufacturers, importers, distributors and other persons to take responsibility for those products.”

This responsibility extends to involvement in management of products at the end of their life. The Act lists the following types of product stewardship:

Voluntary product stewardship: This involves accrediting voluntary arrangements to further the objects of the Act, and authorising the use of product stewardship logos in connection with such arrangements.

Co-regulatory product stewardship: This involves requiring some manufacturers, importers, distributors and users of products to be members of co regulatory arrangements designed to further the objects of the Act.

Mandatory product stewardship: This involves enabling regulations that require some persons to take specified action in relation to products.
Several product stewardship schemes that are currently established in Australia or are coming into effect in the near future aim to improve resource recovery rates. These are:

National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme (co-regulatory)

MobileMuster (mobile phones) (industry scheme)

FluoroCycle (mercury containing lamps) (voluntary)

Australian Packaging Covenant (co-regulatory)

Product stewardship for end-of-life tyres (voluntary)

Available data for each of these schemes is discussed below.

a)TVs and computers recycling scheme

The Environment Protection and Heritage Council completed a Regulatory Impact Statement that provided data on the scale of the TV and computer waste issue (EPHC 2009 p.3):

“In 2007/08, 138,000 tonnes (31.7 million units) of new televisions, computers and computer products were sold in Australia, which is equivalent to 6.5 kg (1.5 new units) per person. In the same year 106,000 tonnes (16.8 million units) reached their end of life, which is close to 5 kg (one unit) per Australian. It is estimated that 84% (by weight) were sent to landfill, with only 10% (by weight) being recycled. Waste volumes are increasing with shorter life spans of product and increasing ownership of electrical products, with the volume of televisions, computers and computer products reaching their end of life expected to grow to 181,000 tonnes (44.0 million units) by 2027/28.”

DSEWPaC’s website provides the following information and data on the scheme.

“The National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme is intended to provide ’Australian householders and small business with access to free recycling services for televisions and computers, printers and computer products (such as keyboards, mice and hard drives) regardless of their brand and age. The Scheme does not cover other e-waste products. The Scheme will also allow other organisations, such as large business enterprises and government departments, to enter into agreements with industry arrangements to have televisions and computer products recycled under the Scheme. These agreements may be subject to costs and other conditions. The Scheme will be funded and run by industry and regulated by the Australian Government under the Product Stewardship Act 2011 and the Product Stewardship (Televisions and Computers) Regulations 2011. Recycling services are expected to commence in mid-2012 and expand across Australia by the end on 2013. To provide flexibility to suit local circumstances, services could take a number of forms, including a permanent collection site, take back events or mail back... Electronic waste, including televisions and computers, is growing three times faster than any other type of waste in Australia. The Scheme will boost the recycling of televisions and computers from an estimated 17 per cent of waste generated in 2010 to a target of 30 per cent in 2012–13. The Scheme recycling targets will then progressively increase each year, reaching 80 per cent of waste generated by 2021–22. The Scheme will also increase the amount of valuable materials recovered from waste televisions and computers, as well as reducing the amount of materials (including hazardous substances) entering the environment’”.

Source: http://www.environment.gov.au/settlements/waste/ewaste/about.html (January 2013).
During consultation, DSEWPaC staff commented that the first year of reporting for TVs and computers is likely to be in 2013 so there are no publically available resource recovery data available for this report. DSEWPaC staff estimated that 25,000 tonnes of TVs and 20,000 tonnes of computers had been recovered by December 2012.

b)MobileMuster (mobile phones)

MobileMuster is the mobile phone industry-funded recycling program, led by the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association. Data from this organisation’s 2010/11 annual report are tabulated below.
Table : MobileMuster data, 2005/06 to 2010/11

	2010/11	2010/11	2009/10	2008/09	2007/08	2006/07	2005/06
Imports (estimated tonnes)	1,232	1,123	1,297	1,581	1,775	1,478	1,446
Mobile phone recovery collections (tonnes)	106	100	103	122	97	78	42
Estimated number handsets and batteries collected	797,105	744,816	845,919	806,812	755,196	576,640	391,074
Recovery rate of imports (%)	8.6%	8.9%	7.9%	7.8%	5.5%	5.3%	3%
Estimated recovery rate (based on estimation of the number of phones actually discarded) (%)	48%	52.3%	50.6%	35	18.9	18%	15%
Estimated disposal to landfill of discarded phones (%)	4%	4%	3%	2%	4%	5%	9%

Source: AMTA (2012)