Present status of E-waste management in Australia and potential ways for improvement integrating the concept of reverse logistics, MFA and LCA

Speaker: Md Tasbirul Islam (Macquarie University – School of Engineering)

Electronic waste (e-waste), also known as waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), is one of the major waste streams in modern society. If disposed of inappropriately, this can cause severe environmental damage. On the other hand, the waste is a valuable source of secondary raw materials as well as rare earth metals. In 2016, global e-waste generation reached 44.7 million tonnes and Australia is one of the highest per capita e-waste generating nations in the world. Current e-waste related regulation mainly focuses on obsolete television and computers under the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme (NTCRS). MobileMuster is the only government accredited mobile phone recycling program. The initiatives only consider few items (computer, mobile phones, and television) among a large number of e-waste items, which is one of the weaknesses of the system. The purpose of this research project is to evaluate the current e-waste management system in Australia and propose potential ways for improvement.