Victoria aims to eliminate e-waste through council partnerships

Product stewardship program, MobileMuster, has partnered with local battery recycler, Envirostream, to offer councils new recycling bins that collect mobiles phones and all types of batteries.

The partnership is initially targeting local councils in Victoria who are preparing for the e-waste landfill ban, coming into effect 1 July 2019 to tackle one of Australia’s fastest growing waste streams. From there the units will be rolled out nationally to local councils and selective retailers.

Research shows approximately 256,000 tonnes of e-waste will be produced in Victoria by 2035; in this year alone, approximately six million old and unused phones across the state are sitting in drawers gathering dust.

Spyro Kalos, Recycling Manager from MobileMuster, said: “We know that consumers are keen to recycle batteries along with their mobile phones and accessories in an environmentally-sound way.

“The partnership will make it easy for councils to offer residents a multi-collection station so they can responsibly dispose of their mobile phones and all batteries in the one place.”

Over the next 12 months as councils get ready for the ban, MobileMuster will be ramping up their education campaign in Victoria to let residents know how and where to recycle their mobile phones and batteries.

All of the batteries that are collected in the new recycling bins will be processed by Envirostream’s facilities based in Victoria. The mobile phones and accessories will also initially be processed locally before further processing for resource recovery.