The Government of Western Australia has proposed a statewide ban on e-waste disposal to landfill by 2024 and is now seeking public comment on the consultation draft of the Waste Avoidance and Resource (e-waste) Regulations 2023.
The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation proposes to administer $10 million in grant funding over the next two years through a series of competitive grant rounds.
The grants will support the ban by funding increased e-waste collection, storage and/or reuse including e-waste processing/recycling.
E-waste can contain precious metals, such as gold, copper and nickel, and rare materials of strategic value, such as indium and palladium. These precious metals could be recovered, recycled and used as valuable source of secondary raw materials.
E-waste can also contain hazardous materials and should be collected and recycled correctly to prevent harm to the environment and human health.
The Australian Battery Recycling Industry (ABRI) Chief Executive Officer Katharine Hole said batteries should not go to landfill or in any household waste recycling service.
“Batteries in waste services are proven to cause fires in garbage trucks, at recycling facilities and in landfill,” Ms Hole said.
The WA Government is the latest government consulting on a proposal to ban batteries and e-waste from landfill in 2024.
“Batteries are recyclable and have high resource recovery rates of 95 per cent and above – this means they can readily be turned into raw materials for new batteries or other products,” Ms Hole said.
“Lead from lead acid batteries is turned into new car batteries with an estimated 80 per cent of the lead in a new battery from recycled materials.
“Critical minerals are recovered from lithium batteries including lithium, nickel and cobalt for use in new batteries and electronics, while commodity grade copper and zinc is recovered from alkaline batteries.”
Options for sending consumer batteries to recycling include:
- B-cycle, Australia’s battery stewardship scheme, accepts loose consumer batteries. You can search by postcode for your nearest drop-off location: https://bcycle.com.au/drop-off/
- Company take-back programs for electronics and other products with embedded batteries, these may include incentives such as rebates and free postage
- E-waste recycling programs
- Council collection sites and hazardous goods collection days
- Searching apps such as Planet Ark’s Recycling Near You where you can search for drop off sites for batteries and a range of other products.
Ms Hole said the demand for recycled battery material will grow as more countries mandate minimum recycled content in batteries and companies meet corporate sustainability goals.
Further information on the WA Government proposal can be found at: https://www.wa.gov.au/service/building-utilities-and-essential-services/waste-management/e-waste-landfill-ban
Consultation closes on 22 November 2023.