Almost 45,000 tonnes of e-waste was recycled under the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme (NTCRS) in 2015.
The Federal Government shared the details in its report on the product stewardship scheme, National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme Outcomes 2014–15, which was published in mid October. Originally launched in 2011, the product stewardship scheme was designed in a way for the television and computer industries to take on an increasing proportion of the responsibility for managing television and computer e-waste over a number of years.
Following an operational review of the scheme in 2014, the Government announced that from 1 July 2015, the target trajectory for industry-funded recycling would be raised to 50 per cent of available e-waste for the 2015/16 financial year reaching 80 per cent in 2026/27.
The Outcomes 2014-15 report covers the 12 months before those targets came into effect. In 2014/15, industry’s responsibility was to fund the recycling of 35 per cent of waste arising. The report estimates that 121,866.3 tonnes of televisions and computers reached end-of-life in Australia in 2014/15. Against a target of 42,653.2 tonnes, a total of 44,730.5 tonnes of recycling was achieved for the period. To help attain this goal, the NTCRS co-regulatory arrangements provided 1,677 collection services and events, of which 1,060 were jointly delivered.
The report also includes the material recovery statistics for 2014/15 under NTCRS. From 1 July 2014, each co-regulatory arrangement must meet a minimum material recovery rate of 90 per cent across its material processing streams, with the aim of minimising the amount of television and computer material that is disposed of to landfill and maximising the recovery of resources.
In 2014/15, 39,811.72 tonnes of useable material was recovered from recycling under the scheme and 14,706.9 tonnes of e-waste fractions were exported for further processing: 921.2 tonnes of material was sent to landfill in Australia, while 191.6 tonnes was landfilled after secondary overseas processing.
Companies importing or manufacturing over a threshold amount of television or computer products are liable under the scheme and must join and fund an approved co-regulatory arrangement to provide collection and recycling services on their behalf. There were 130 liable parties in 2014/15 and their compliance as a proportion of the weight of liable imports was 99.8 per cent at 30 June 2015, as 127 of these parties met their obligations.
The full Outcomes 2014-15 report is available on the NTCRS section of the Department of Environment website, along with details of the scheme.