Image: Visit Victoria
On 1 July, 2019, the Victorian Government introduced an e-waste to landfill ban. This left many councils with a need to find a recycling solution for their e-waste.
Councils are now asking NTCRS co-regulatory arrangements to collect and process non-NTCRS e-waste. As ‘out of scope’ volume is not funded by the Scheme, co-regulatory arrangements may choose not to accept this waste or may charge a fee to collect it. Councils require a cost-effective, environmentally sound recycling solution for all e-waste generated by their residents. In response, ANZRP is building a mobile e-waste factory – the first of its kind in Australia.
The factory will be housed inside a 40ft shipping container which will consist of manual disassembly stations as well as plastic shredding and granulation equipment.
The mobile factory will be deployed to ANZRP affiliated council sites to perform on-site processing of e-waste. This will save time and money and provide a much needed service to regional Victoria.
Aside from environmental benefits, ANZRP will generate a new revenue stream by performing e-waste recycling on a small scale through this innovative ‘door to door’ service.
The benefit of owning the mobile e-waste factory and expanding its services to e-waste recycling include:
- Positive environmental impact
- Strengthening relationships with councils
- Brand exposure for ANZRP and its members
ANZRP is uniquely positioned to succeed as it is has all the necessary relationships with regional collection sites and e-waste recyclers and local downstream processors to sell the output to.
TechCollect will directly service councils, focussing on those that:
- Generate in scope NTCRS volume (in addition to out of scope volume) that TechCollect can count to its NTCRS recycling target and reduce its NTCRS recycling costs.
- Are located in regional areas as they will have the space to host the mobile e-waste factory, allowing TechCollect to reduce its transport costs, as processed materials will be transported to Melbourne.
Benefits to this approach include:
- Environment protection: The project will encourage recycling of e-waste and plastic to help Victoria to achieve its circular economy goals.
- Job creation: The project will create up to four full time employees.
- Education: Dedicated educational materials will be developed so that the mobile factory can host school groups.
ANZRP expects the mobile factory will be operational by mid-2020.
