THE Surf Coast Shire is seeking to get ahead of the coming ban on e-waste in landfill, approving a plan for its transfer sites in Anglesea, Lorne and Winchelsea to be upgraded to deal with the materials.<\/p>\n
The ban on e-waste – any item with a plug, battery or cord that is no longer working or wanted – in landfill will be phased in over 12 months from July 1 next year, and the state government is providing grants to councils (through Sustainability Victoria) for upgrades to fixed collection and storage infrastructure for e-waste.<\/p>\n
The funding will cover all infrastructure costs up to $100,000 per site, but not project management, design, engineering or approval costs.<\/p>\n
At their meeting last month, councillors allocated the transfer of $15,000 from the waste reserve to each of the three transfer sites to cover project costs, as well as another $301,500 from the waste reserve towards previously planned e-waste infrastructure at the Anglesea transfer station to incorporate wind and rain protection and managing problem materials.<\/p>\n
Cr Carol McGregor said the funding from Sustainability Victoria was an opportunity to keep as much e-waste out of landfill as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve become such a society of disposable things over the years, and the one big thing that is growing is our disposable e-waste.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sustainability Victoria has also launched a new campaign, \u201cTake your e-waste to a better place\u201d, aimed at educating Victorians about the importance of recycling e-waste to not only avoid the toxins ending up in landfill, but also aid the recovery of all of the many recyclable elements in these devices that can be re-used.<\/p>\n
It is estimated that we will have created 223,000 tonnes of broken and unwanted electrical items by 2023, and about 700 million e-waste items by 2020 alone unless recycling programs are introduced.<\/p>\n
For more information on e-waste, head to ewaste.vic.gov.au.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE Surf Coast Shire is seeking to get ahead of the coming ban on e-waste in landfill, approving a plan for its transfer sites in Anglesea, Lorne and Winchelsea to be upgraded to deal with the materials. The ban on e-waste – any item with a plug, battery or cord that is no longer working […]<\/p>\n